From Models to Hardware, From Applications to the Rise of Super-Individuals | A Review of China's AI Innovations in 2024

It's the end of the year, and we're planning a series of year-in-review episodes to look back at the major events of 2024 with all of you. This year, we've often talked about innovation connected to Silicon Valley, and we also ran our "AI in China" series. As we thought about how to approach our year-end summary, we kept wondering how we could offer something with a fresh angle.

Recently, after seeing some data from domestic players and recalling what a guest said during our last year-end review — "we're right at center stage" — we landed on the idea for this episode: mapping the innovations in China's AI space in 2024.

So for this episode, we've invited Mars Renxin, partner at Sky9 Capital and host of the podcast "AI Alchemy," who has previously appeared on Crossroads. Together we walk through 2024's AI innovations and interesting people in China — from models to hardware, from applications to young hackathon participants and "super individuals." Like our last review, we hope this retrospective can give everyone some momentum heading into the new year.

A special note: in preparing for this episode and gathering materials, we're sure there are blind spots in our information. If there are any projects we missed, please let us know in the comments. Let's collectively preserve these AI innovations that brought us excitement and encouragement in 2024.

🟢 Part 1: The Buzziest Layer — Models. What to Watch?

2:53 — $15 Claude vs. ¥2 DeepSeek: From LV to MINISO

4:27 — "You have to abuse tokens"

6:24 — With every model update, are you nervous and panicked, or excited and thrilled?

7:00 — Zhipu AutoGLM: Operating your phone with natural language

9:39 — Xiaomi's nine-character mantra: remember for you, find for you, fill for you

🟢 Part 2: Familiar Territory, Fresh Moves

11:57 — Tencent launches AI intelligent workspace ima: the PC client strikes back

14:33 — Hardware and software players both jumping in: Apple pushes new-gen computers, Kuark and Doubao make PC apps

16:42 — The all-in-one bundle: something domestic players are especially good at?

18:49 — A quick detour to an African product: Phoenix Browser, the browser for browsing everything

🟢 Part 3: Text-to-Video, Unleashed Imagination

21:50 — From the viral "Venom" to the satisfying squish effect: Chinese companies in video generation

24:21 — Dozens of Video Battle competitions summarized

28:37 — Remember the claymation style? They also have a beloved old photo restoration project

30:13 — Another route: 3DGS and even 4DGS

🟢 Part 4: AI + Hardware, a Walk Through Huaqiangbei

32:55 — Plaud: 300,000 units sold so far

35:30 — Not everything needs to chase efficiency: years ago there was Jibo, the robot that sold cuteness

37:23 — The Lovot challenger: Ropet launching on Kickstarter soon

38:38 — A new take on smart glasses: not helping you see the world, but helping you see yourself

42:21 — Hands-on with Ola Friend: quietly calling to it in a café

🟢 Part 5: Those Suddenly Viral Products — May There Be More

44:53 — Dating keyboard

45:57 — AI PPT

47:45 — The stroke of genius for AI PPT: the AI mouse

🟢 Part 6: So Good at Education Products — Are We Just Too Good at Test-Taking?

49:39 — One AI startup direction where Chinese founders make up half the landscape

🟢 Part 7: In These Products, AI's Presence Is Quiet and Seamless

54:43 — In Tencent Meeting: beauty filters and voice tuning

56:01 — Douyin's one-tap video creation

58:13 — CapCut, Meitu, Douyin — deep technical accumulation; entrepreneurs might as well go do something newer

🟢 Part 8: Interesting People and Things: Young Hackathon Participants and the Growing Ranks of "Super Individuals"

1:00:09 — AdventureX: a young person's first hackathon

1:00:51 — Discovering the magical world of ACG, and from metaverse entrepreneurship to using Dify to build workflows and deliver a SaaS

1:03:54 — In 2024, we saw many "super individuals" empowered by AI

1:06:02 — Genius appears in clusters

🟢 Part 9: Somewhat Inspired

1:07:05 — Model progress hasn't been slow

1:08:03 — Audio and video directions have massive potential

1:08:36 — Chinese entrepreneurs excel at applications; combining scenarios with technology, there's a fighting chance

1:10:00 — Any new technology displaces mature experience; young people learn fast and have more opportunities

1:14:30 — Employees just complete a job; in the AI era, we "should be a chef"

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