Across China's cities, a technological transformation is unfolding faster than the social fabric can absorb it — artificial intelligence is displacing workers not at the margins of the economy, but at its struggling center. In Wuhan, robotaxis have hollowed out taxi drivers' wages by nearly half; in Beijing, cinematographers with decades of craft find their livelihoods compressed into a shrinking corner that AI has not yet claimed. China's gig workforce, which doubled to 320 million people since 2019, now faces a second disruption before recovering from the first — and the government, long an
China's AI boom leaves workers scrambling as jobs vanish faster than safety nets
Millions of workers face wage cuts and job displacement; taxi drivers and cinematographers report 40% income reductions; workers express fear of permanent unemployment as AI capabilities advance faster than policy responses.
that corner is getting smaller and smaller
Mark
Why does what happened in Wuhan matter beyond that one city? It seems like a local traffic problem.
Mimi
It's not really about traffic. When those robotaxis broke down and taxi drivers suddenly had work again, it exposed something the government had been trying to manage quietly—that AI deployment is directly destroying livelihoods faster than anyone can adapt. Wuhan became visible proof of an invisible crisis.
Mark
But China's government is powerful. Can't they just regulate this, slow it down, protect workers?
Mimi
They're trying to now, yes. But there's a contradiction at the heart of it. Beijing wants rapid AI development for competitive and economic reasons. At the same time, they're watching 320 million people in precarious work get pushed further into desperation. You can't have both.
Mark
The cinematographer Tian Zemin—is his situation unusual, or is this happening across white-collar work?
Mimi
It's happening across white-collar work. He's just willing to talk about it publicly. Most people are too afraid or too busy scrambling to survive. But the pattern is the same: skills that took years to develop become obsolete in months. The shock is real.
Mark
What would actually protect these workers?
Mimi
That's the question Beijing is wrestling with. Hiring quotas, retraining programs, income support—those are all possible. But they require the government to actively choose workers over growth. And right now, the momentum is all toward deployment, not restraint.
Mark
Is there any sign workers might push back harder, like they did in Wuhan?
Mimi
The Wuhan protests were censored almost immediately. Workers know the risks of organizing. What you're seeing instead is quiet desperation—people adapting, taking whatever work they can find, hoping they're not next. That's harder to organize around, and easier for the government to ignore.
Il Polso
- Robotaxis in Wuhan have slashed taxi drivers' incomes by 40%, and one driver's only relief came during a system malfunction — a telling sign of how little margin these workers have left.
- China's gig workforce has doubled to 320 million people since 2019, meaning nearly half the country's labor force is now exposed to AI displacement with minimal protections beneath them.
- White-collar workers are not spared: a Beijing cinematographer with two decades of experience has watched his freelance rate fall to 40% of its 2019 level as AI-generated avatars grow capable of carrying entire films.
- Protests by Wuhan taxi drivers in 2024 were suppressed, and a taxi company that publicly criticized automation was silenced — revealing how little space exists for workers to push back.
- Beijing has begun shifting its rhetoric toward 'people-first' AI approaches and employment protection, but analysts and workers alike fear that policy will arrive long after the damage is done.
- The corner of human work that AI cannot yet replace is shrinking fast, and workers describe a race to adapt with no clear finish line and no guarantee of arrival.
Across China's cities, a technological transformation is unfolding faster than the social fabric can absorb it — artificial intelligence is displacing workers not at the margins of the economy, but at its struggling center. In Wuhan, robotaxis have hollowed out taxi drivers' wages by nearly half; in Beijing, cinematographers with decades of craft find their livelihoods compressed into a shrinking corner that AI has not yet claimed. China's gig workforce, which doubled to 320 million people since 2019, now faces a second disruption before recovering from the first — and the government, long an enthusiastic champion of AI deployment, is only beginning to reckon with what it has set in motion.
In Wuhan, a brief malfunction of Baidu's Apollo Go robotaxis in 2022 offered taxi driver Yao Xinnong an unexpected window of relief. His wages had collapsed by roughly 40% since the driverless fleet arrived — but when the system went down and passengers returned to human drivers, he felt it immediately. The reprieve did not last.
Wuhan is a window into a much larger disruption. China is deploying artificial intelligence across its economy at a speed and scale the West has not attempted, and it is doing so into a labor market already under severe strain. Since 2019, the number of gig workers has doubled from 160 million to 320 million — nearly 44% of the entire workforce — as traditional industries like real estate and education collapsed and workers fled into precarious, flexible employment. Robotaxis are now closing even that refuge.
In 2024, Wuhan taxi drivers protested the Apollo Go rollout, but the government moved swiftly to suppress coverage of the demonstrations. A taxi company that publicly criticized the automation policy was later silenced; when a reporter visited their office, an employee declined to speak, citing a police agreement and fear of detention.
Yet two years on, Beijing itself has begun to echo the drivers' concerns. State media warned of a 'collision between traditional employment rules and the iteration of AI technology,' and officials pledged to address AI's impact on employment. Analysts describe a 'major vibe shift' — from uncritical enthusiasm following the success of homegrown AI model DeepSeek, toward a more cautious, people-first framing.
The disruption reaches well beyond manual labor. Tian Zemin, a Beijing cinematographer who spent six years climbing to his position after nearly two decades in the industry, has watched his freelance rate fall to 40% of what it was in 2019. AI-generated avatars that looked crude a year ago can now carry entire feature films. 'We have barely had time to react,' he said.
Some analysts argue China's capacity to direct private industry gives it tools the West lacks — hiring mandates, absorption requirements — to cushion the blow. But for workers already losing ground, the question is whether any protection will arrive in time. 'The corner that AI still cannot replace,' Tian said, 'is getting smaller and smaller.'
In Wuhan, where the streets pulse with the chaos of competing traffic—cars, mopeds, cargo trucks all vying for space—a fleet of driverless taxis briefly vanished from the roads in 2022. When the Apollo Go robotaxis, powered by artificial intelligence and operated by tech giant Baidu, malfunctioned that March, stranding passengers for hours, the city pulled them for investigation. For Yao Xinnong, a 45-year-old taxi driver, the outage was an unexpected reprieve. His wages, which had collapsed by roughly 40% since the robotaxis arrived, climbed back up as riders returned to human drivers. "Their impact has been huge," he said of the driverless cabs. He did not speak fondly of them.
What happened in Wuhan is a microcosm of a much larger upheaval unfolding across China. The country is deploying artificial intelligence at a scale the West has not yet attempted, rolling out the technology with extraordinary speed into a labor market already buckling under strain. The robotaxi episode exposed the social fractures this is creating—tensions between technological progress and human survival that the government itself is now beginning to acknowledge.
China's workforce has undergone a seismic shift. As traditional industries like real estate and education have collapsed, tens of millions of workers have fled formal employment into the gig economy. In 2019, roughly 160 million people worked in flexible, precarious jobs. By this year, that number had nearly doubled to 320 million—roughly 44 percent of China's entire workforce. Taxi drivers are one visible part of this vast cohort, turning to ride-hailing apps to survive as their old industries crumbled. Now, as robotaxis proliferate, even that refuge is closing.
In 2024, taxi drivers in Wuhan protested the rollout of Apollo Go, though the government moved quickly to suppress news of the demonstrations. One taxi company took the extraordinary step of publicly criticizing the government's decision to allow automation on city streets. "The recent rise of autonomous ride-hailing vehicles has allowed technology to monopolise resources and take away the livelihoods of people at the bottom of society," the company wrote. When a Guardian reporter visited the office in July, an employee refused to speak, citing a police agreement to refuse interviews and the risk of detention for violation. The government does not tolerate public dissent.
Yet two years after those suppressed protests, Beijing itself began echoing the drivers' concerns. The state-run Workers' Daily published an editorial warning that employment rights were "facing new challenges" in the age of AI, cautioning of a "collision between traditional employment rules and the iteration of AI technology." The government pledged to "comprehensively address the impact" of artificial intelligence on employment. Selina Xu, a China technology analyst, described a "major vibe shift" from Beijing. After the success of the homegrown AI model DeepSeek last year, the government had been enthusiastically pro-AI. "This year," Xu said, "there has been a lot more emphasis placed on AI for boosting employment and people-first approaches."
But the threat extends far beyond taxi drivers. White-collar workers are being displaced with equal speed. Tian Zemin, a cinematographer in Beijing, spent six grueling years climbing to his position in the film industry. He has worked in cinema for nearly two decades. Then AI software began replacing him. His freelance rate has fallen to 40 percent of what it was in 2019. "I thought I would spend my whole life in this industry," he told the Guardian. "But the emergence of AI has made me feel a huge shock for the first time." The technology's progress has been staggering. A year ago, AI-generated avatars looked crude and unconvincing. Now they can produce digital clones capable of carrying entire feature films. "We have barely had time to react," Tian said.
Some analysts believe China's system of government control over the private sector positions it better than the United States to manage the fallout from AI job losses. Beijing could, for instance, mandate hiring quotas or require companies to absorb displaced workers. But such protections, if they come at all, may arrive too late for workers already watching their livelihoods evaporate. "We could be replaced at any moment," Tian said. "Perhaps the only thing we can do is adapt as quickly as possible, and try to find the corner that AI still cannot replace—but that corner is getting smaller and smaller."
Citazioni salienti
Their impact has been huge— Yao Xinnong, taxi driver in Wuhan, on the effect of robotaxis
We have barely had time to react— Tian Zemin, cinematographer, on the speed of AI advancement in film
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