China is worried A.I. companions could be a drag on productivity. On “Interesting Times,” Kyle Chan, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, tells the Opinion columnist Ross Douthat that the government thinks youth “should be engineering the future and building out the start-ups and the future Chinese versions of SpaceX.”

What if you weren’t worried about A.I. taking your job? That seems to be closer to the reality in China, where keeping pace with the new technology is a much bigger focus than economic disruption. On “Interesting Times,” Kyle Chan, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, explains how the countries differ in their anxieties over artificial intelligence.

What if you weren’t worried about A.I. taking your job? That seems to be closer to the reality in China, where keeping pace with the new technology is a much bigger focus than economic disruption. On “Interesting Times,” Kyle Chan, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, explains how the countries differ in their anxieties over artificial intelligence.

The difference in perspectives between superpowers is shaping the race for A.I. dominance.