bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Coco Feng

In the southwestern tech hub of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, Matthew Chen co-founded a small video gaming studio and publisher that has recently embraced generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology to become more efficient, while vastly reducing its manpower requirements – an emerging trend in the world’s second-largest economy.
By adopting two foreign-developed tools – Stable Diffusion, a deep-learning system that generates detailed images based on text descriptions, and AI chatbot ChatGPT – which are both officially not available in China, Chen’s company has done away this year with an army of contractors who used to do translation work.
“ChatGPT translates much faster, and it costs only US$20 a month,” Chen said. By comparison, a third-party translation firm can charge as much as 100,000 yuan (US$14,000) for a year’s contract, he said.
Copywriters, foreign-language customer service employees and some illustrators can also be replaced by AI, according to Chen. He said his company is experimenting with Stable Diffusion, which turns text prompts into images, to make rough sketches into images. This system can be about 80 per cent as good as a human illustrator, he said.


The changes made at Chen’s video gaming studio represent a small fraction of the sweeping disruptions brought by generative AI technology to certain traditional occupations in China and the country’s broader job market.
In a global analysis published in late March, Goldman Sachs estimated that generative AI could automate as many as 300 million full-time jobs.
The US investment bank found that one-quarter of current tasks could be automated by AI in the US and Europe, listing sectors such as office administrative support, legal, architecture and engineering.
The stakes appear higher in China, where low birth rates have combined with a rapidly ageing population to result in a widening demographic imbalance. This situation has also been complicated by the country’s record-high youth unemployment rate.
AI may put half of China’s jobs at risk. We asked ChatGPT for career advice
There are 11.6 million new university graduates this summer, some 820,000 more than last year, who will enter China’s job market, which is already awash with unsuccessful jobseekers who finished college during the coronavirus pandemic.
A recent study conducted by Zhang Dandan, an associate professor at Peking University’s National Development School, on 1.2 million job posts in a Chinese recruitment website found that employment opportunities are quickly disappearing for positions that can be easily replaced by AI, including in sales, accounting, training, software development, office management and client services, according to a report by Shanghai-based digital media outlet Jiemian.
The study suggested that AI is taking away more traditional occupations in China than creating new jobs, which is a trend that may intensify, Zhang was quoted by Jiemian as saying. She shared her research at an academic symposium last month in the nation’s capital.
While the Chinese government has yet to provide an estimate of the overall AI-related disruptions in the country’s job market, the technology’s impact is becoming more pronounced. One of the hardest-hit sectors is overseas study agency, in which intermediaries prepare the relevant paperwork for overseas study applications, according to a recent report by state-controlled National Business Daily, which said ChatGPT was killing this trade.
ChatGPT boss says AI won’t spark mass jobs extinction
The report quoted Zhang Ye, who runs a firm that assists Chinese students to study overseas, as saying that his company has already lost more than 60 per cent of its business in “polishing” applications to “high-quality” work done via ChatGPT.
Using a large language model (LLM) like GPT-4, the latest version developed by US start-up OpenAI for its ChatGPT service, also costs less than 1 per cent of hiring a human data analyst while turning in comparable performances, according to a recent study by Damo Academy, the in-house research arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
An LLM is a deep-learning algorithm that can recognise, summarise, translate, predict and generate text and other content based on knowledge gained from massive data sets.
At present, China’s government is yet to officially approve any domestic ChatGPT-style services. Baidu’s Ernie Bot, SenseTime’s SenseChat, iFlytek’s SparkDesk and Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen are all considered in “trial mode”. Both ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, meanwhile, are not directly available in China, which has the world’s largest internet population.
AI sector a bright spot in tough jobs market for China’s graduates
Still, tech-savvy Chinese users have used ChatGPT in various local endeavours.
A social sciences researcher and college professor, surnamed Zhang, described ChatGPT as being “very reliable” in his data analysis for R, a programming language for statistical computing and graphics, and the general-purpose Python programming language.
“I used to spend 20 to 30 per cent of my time on assignments” such as composing course syllabuses, drafting speech scripts for faculty deans and writing meeting agendas, Zhang said. “ChatGPT is pretty good at generating content that doesn’t have to contain arguments or originality, but it won’t turn out an avant-garde academic paper.”
There are also certain enterprises and industries that have widely adopted these new AI tools and created new job opportunities.
Copywriters, designers, illustrators and translators can also use generative AI to improve their work and not necessarily be replaced, according to Pascale Fung, director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.


“Jobs that are likely to be created are those that use AI to improve their efficiency and creativity,” Fung said. “There will be a new generation of AI designers, content creators, analysts, architects, artists and more who know how to harvest the power of generative AI.”
On Boss Zhipin, a Chinese recruiting platform that targets tech workers, at least 27 vacancies were listed this week for “prompt engineers”, a relatively new role to optimise the interaction with generative AI.
Employers included some of China’s biggest internet firms, including TikTok owner ByteDance, voice recognition giant iFlytek and Jidu, an electric car venture backed by Baidu and carmaker Geely. Hangzhou-based intelligent marketing agency Mogic is also looking for about five prompt engineers, which are new positions created in May, according to a company representative in charge of technology in a written response to the Post.
A prompt engineer is expected to have comprehensive capabilities to understand LLMs, write code, analyse data and know marketing. “For example, the prompt engineer has to understand how a short video works to ask generative AI to provide the right scripts,” the Mogic representative said.
Even for China’s fresh graduates, those with degrees related to LLMs are in short supply, as the number of job openings surged 172.5 per cent from a year earlier, according to job search platform Liepin’s 2023 employment report for Chinese university graduates.


Will ChatGPT and similar generative AI tools worsen China’s job crisis? Country’s employment landscape faces sweeping disruption

A recent study found that employment opportunities in China are quickly disappearing for positions that can be easily replaced by artificial intelligence, including those in sales, accounting, training, software development, office management and client services. Photo: Shutterstock

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Generative AI technology is bringing sweeping disruptions to certain traditional occupations in China and the country’s broader job market
The stakes appear high in China, where low birth rates have combined with a rapidly ageing population to result in a widening demographic imbalance


Generative artificial intelligence technology is bringing sweeping disruptions to certain traditional occupations in China and the country’s broader job market.


Will ChatGPT and similar generative AI tools worsen China’s job crisis? Country’s employment landscape faces sweeping disruption

Generative AI technology is bringing sweeping disruptions to certain traditional occupations in China and the country’s broader job market The stakes appear high in China, where low birth rates have combined with a rapidly ageing population to result in a widening demographic imbalance

Generative AI technology is bringing sweeping disruptions to certain traditional occupations in China and the country’s broader job market

The stakes appear high in China, where low birth rates have combined with a rapidly ageing population to result in a widening demographic imbalance