I think in the west, we mostly only hear from the government, and not regular people because they don’t speak English and aren’t on western websites. Regular people probably have a lot of the same concerns we do. Of course, the government wants to increase total productivity and don’t care if it causes an upset for regular people.

Keep in mind, one example of “more productive” to the Chinese is passing AI generated bullshit through as peer reviewed academic articles, like nobody is gonna notice the rat with a dick larger than its own body.

So I’d say people who care about ethics, or academic integrity, or whatever, still have something to worry about. China just doesn’t care.

I, too, first heard this quote from Adam on Mythbusters as a child. But, I’m pretty sure I also heard it was said first by some philosopher.

I would later be informed that “some philosopher” was the 1984 film The Dungeon Master.

Only apparently that was not the first, and it was said in a 1974 episode of Doctor Who. Well, someone on Reddit said that, and linked to this WikiQuote page but on that page it also says it’s from The Dungeon master.

So, I don’t know what to believe any more, and I still hope it was actually an obscure lost quote of Rene Magritte or something because in my head it would just make sense.