中國希望人工智能蓬勃發展，但不能以犧牲就業為代價（2/2）

 Recently The New York Times reported the following:

China Wants A.I. to Flourish, but Not at the Expense of Jobs (2/2)

A series of precedent-setting rulings signals that Chinese courts are being enlisted to shield workers from displacement by artificial intelligence.

The NYT - By Catie Edmondson - Reporting from Seoul

May 19, 2026

Updated 10:45 a.m. ET

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In a similar case in Beijing, an arbitration panel ruled in favor of a map data collector whose entire department was laid off and replaced with artificial intelligence. The panel found that the company’s adoption of A.I. was a voluntary move to remain competitive and did not warrant the employee’s firing.

Companies that benefit from technology must, at the same time, adopt “social responsibilities” and protect worker rights, the panel ruled.

Government rhetoric around the deployment of A.I. initially stressed the technology’s benefits to workers. Recently, however, official statements and commentaries by state news outlets have begun to acknowledge artificial intelligence as a potentially corrosive force in the job market.

“The government was really pushing this diffusion agenda,” said Ruby Scanlon, a research associate at the Center for a New American Security. “Increasingly, there’s been a lot more rhetoric and nudges and policy documents to the idea of actually creating a backstop for employees.”

In China, robots and A.I. have already played a disruptive role in two of the nation’s largest employment categories: manufacturing and food delivery.

More than two million robots were already working in Chinese factories as of 2024. And in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, Meituan, the nation’s largest food delivery service, has experimented with using small autonomous robots to deliver food. In Shanghai, Meituan delivers over 1,000 meals a day using those robots, according to promotional materials published by Nvidia.

With those changes in mind, China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced in January that it would roll out policies to address “the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs,” including “targeted employment support for key industries.”

A handful of party officials have proposed sweeping government intervention, such as encouraging employers to offer vocational training to help workers adapt to an A.I.-centric job market. Liu Qingfeng, a tech firm founder and member of the National People’s Congress, has called for a government led “A.I.-unemployment insurance program” to create a safety net for displaced workers.

For now, though, the focus appears to remain on encouraging companies themselves to hold off on layoffs.

“Truly visionary companies will leverage the technological advantages of A.I. to explore new avenues and create new jobs, making technology a driving force for corporate development,” a commentary in March from Xinhua, the state news agency, opined. “Those companies that equate A.I. with ‘reducing staff’ may seem to lower costs in the short term, but in reality, they lose the core competitiveness of talent accumulation and further erode employee trust.”

Translation

中國希望人工智能蓬勃發展，但不能以犧牲就業為代價（2/2）

一系列具有里程碑意義的裁決表明，中國法院正被用來保護工人免受人工智能取代

（繼續）

在北京的類似案件中，仲裁小組裁定一名地圖資料採集員勝訴，該採集員的整個部門被裁員並由人工智能取代。仲裁小組認為，該公司採用人工智能是為了保持競爭力，是自願之舉，因此不應解僱該員工。

仲裁小組裁定，從技術中獲益的公司必須同時承擔“社會責任”，保護工人的權益。

政府最初在人工智能部署方面的言論強調了這項技術對工人的益處。然而，最近官方聲明和官方媒體的評論開始承認人工智能可能對就業市場造成衝擊。

新美國安全中心的研究員Ruby Scanlon 表示:“政府一直在大力推進人工智能的普及”; “越來越多的言論、暗示和政策文件都在強調要為員工提供保障。”

在中國，機械人和人工智能已經在製造業和外送配送這兩個最大的就業領域中發揮了顛覆性作用。

截至2024年，已有超過200萬台機器人在中國工廠工作。在北京、上海和深圳，中國最大的外送平台美團已經開始嘗試使用小型自主機器人送餐。根據英偉達發佈的宣傳資料顯示，在上海，美團每天使用這些機器人配送超過1,000份餐點。

考慮到這些變化，中國人力資源和社會保障部於1月份宣佈，將推出一系列政策以應對“人工智能對就業的影響”，其中包括“針對重點行業的就業支持”。

一些黨政官員提出了全面的政府介入措施，例如鼓勵雇主提供職業培訓，幫助員工適應以人工智能為中心的就業市場。科技公司創辦人、全國人大代表Liu Qingfeng呼籲政府主導“人工智能失業保險計劃”，為失業者提供保障。

然而，目前看來，重點似乎仍是鼓勵企業暫緩裁員。

國營新華社3月份的一篇評論指出：“真正具有遠見卓識的企業將利用人工智能的技術優勢，開拓新領域，創造新就業機會，使技術成為企業發展的驅動力”; “那些將人工智能等同於‘裁員’的公司，短期內或許看似降低了成本，但實際上，它們會失去人才積累的核心競爭力，並進一步削弱員工的信任。”

So, a Chinese court has ruled that a tech company laying off a worker and replacing him with artificial intelligence software is illegal. The court believes that the development of artificial intelligence technology should also take into account the protection of workers’ legitimate rights and interests. At this moment, the focus of China appears to remain on encouraging companies themselves to hold off on layoffs. Apparently, any massive layoffs could affect social stability and to maintain employment is the priority of the ruling CPP.