How China Caught U.S. AI — With Grace Shao
Big Technology Podcast

How China Caught U.S. AI — With Grace Shao

B2Upper-intermediateJuly 29, 20261 hr 1 min

Grace Shao is the author of AI Proem. Shao joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss how Chinese AI labs have caught their American rivals despite operating with less advanced computing infrastructure. Tune in to hear how talent, specialization, open-source collaboration, and fierce competition helped models like Kimi K3 approach the U.S. frontier, and what that means for OpenAI, Anthropic, and the business of selling intelligence. We also cover model distillation, China’s compute constraints, the growing importance of AI products, why top researchers are returning to China, and the country’s emerging robotics advantage. Hit play for a clea...

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 1 of 12 · 0:00

..

resources at its disposal? And what does it mean if USA iLabs permanently lose their lead

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • B21:04
  • B212:58
  • C221:19
  • B230:02
  • C133:32
  • B240:46
  • C150:07
  • B255:50

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 25%A2 32%B1 21%B2 19%C1 3%
  • 78% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 182 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 291 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

How does China keep catching up to the U.S. in AI despite having much fewer state-of-the-art resources at its disposal? And what does it mean if USA iLabs permanently lose their lead to China? We'll talk about it with a leading China analyst, Grace Shao, right after this. In the face of ongoing disruption and opportunity, TMT leaders need to deliver tangible results,

0:21

not just ideas. When pace and performance matter most, PwC combines market insights and deep sector experience with AI, cloud, and emerging tech to accelerate your transformation and drive measurable ROI from strategy to execution. PwC can help you anticipate what's next, outpace disruption, and compete.

0:43

For more information, visit pwc.com. Welcome to Big Technology Podcast, a show for cool-headed and nuanced conversation of the tech world and beyond. Today we're going to talk all about China's rise in AI, which is really now a multi-year phenomenon, and whether the United States can maintain any semblance of a lead over China

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (60 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy