Apple removed Bitchat from the China App Store on February 28, 2026, citing local legal violations. The Cyberspace Administration of China claims Bitchat violates Article 3 of its security assessment provisions.
Meta has agreed to 'substantially reduce' its references to PG-13 and include a rather remarkable disclaimer: 'There are lots of differences between social media and movies.'
With the recently launched MacBook Neo -Apple's cheapest laptop yet-the company is once again betting on intrigue over explanation. It does not seem especially worried about being too vague, showing too little of the product or leaving viewers asking, 'What am I watching?' After all, that same creative risk helped make 'Silhouettes' iconic.
Chinese users rushed to install OpenClaw on their devices, even forming long lines outside Tencent's headquarters in Shenzhen and Baidu's headquarters in Beijing to get engineers to help install the AI agent. Others paid strangers online to set it up for them.
ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, recently established a separate American entity to run the app's U.S. operations. This restructuring aims to separate U.S. TikTok from its Chinese parent, addressing concerns about data privacy and foreign control. The move came after years of pressure from lawmakers, who feared the Chinese government's potential access to Americans' data. In 2024, Congress enacted a law, mandating that TikTok's U.S. operations be separated from ByteDance.
At Meituan, China's platform for local services, especially known for food delivery, I worked on two AI projects. One was a consumer-facing AI assistant that helps users complete various tasks, including ordering food. The other was a merchant-facing AI agent designed to help businesses manage their daily operations, including handling reservations, managing orders, and supporting routine operational tasks. The main difference between how products are built in China and in the US comes down to the market.
Available for a one-time payment of the equivalent of $1.15 in US dollars, the app - with the evocative name of "Are You Dead?" - is basically a large countdown timer that you have to reset regularly, and which alerts an emergency contact if you let the time run out. As the BBC reports, the app's counter is set to two days by default. After downloading, a user simply has to open the app and tap a large button to reset it.
A decade ago, China's political leaders laid out an ambitious industrial plan: By 2025, they pledged, their country would be a world capital, with the goal of moving from "Chinese speed to Chinese quality, the transformation of Chinese products to Chinese brands." This is the difference, they wrote, between "Made in China" and "Created in China." At WIRED, we never take what the government (ours or anybody else's) says at face value.
AI slop seems to be everywhere. Low-quality digital content made with artificial intelligence has flooded our feeds, screens and speakers. Is there anything we can do about it? If you want fewer cartoonish videos of dead celebrities, creepy or absurd images or fake bands playing synthetic tunes, a few platforms have rolled out settings and features to help minimize AI-generated content.
One of the social media strategies I apply is the adoption by everyone in the business of some form of social media - whether it's writing a blog which sometimes mentions the business but occasionally has pictures of holidays; using Twitter to get those free Muffins from the cafe on the corner - and occasionally mention a company product that they love; using Facebook to update the company page but also "Like" it as an individual... hopefully you're starting to get the picture.
