According to a court ruling, it is illegal in China to fire someone to replace them with AI

Darrell West of the centrist Brookings Institution said something to Politico last year that should go without saying, but I keep coming back to it because, to me, it’s comedy by understatement: “The stock market might do well, but if unemployment rises and AI takes away jobs – that’s not good for the average American.”

Right now the stock market is doing well and jobs are doing well too. But Americans still hate the economy. They don’t like AI either. And they don’t seem to like AI leaders.

Things are different over in China. People there seem to like and trust AI. According to a survey, China’s attitude towards AI is the third in the world after Nigeria and India. Other surveys say basically the same thing.

Here’s something that probably won’t hurt this perception among the Chinese public: It turns out that firing someone to replace them with AI automation is illegal in China. As…