AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order

by Kai-Fu Lee

Toutiao’s AI engines trawl the internet for content, using natural-language processing and computer vision to digest articles and videos from a vast network of partner sites and commissioned contributors. It then uses the past behavior of its users—their clicks, reads, views, comments, and so on—to curate a highly personalized newsfeed tailored to each person’s interests. The app’s algorithms even rewrite headlines to optimize for user clicks. And the more those users click, the better Toutiao becomes at recommending precisely the content they want to see. It’s a positive feedback loop that has created one of the most addictive content platforms on the internet, with users spending an average of seventy-four minutes per day in the app.