{"id":2076,"date":"2026-08-05T18:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=2076"},"modified":"2026-08-05T18:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:00:17","slug":"why-asia-is-more-enthusiastic-about-ai-than-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=2076","title":{"rendered":"Why Asia Is More Enthusiastic About AI Than the West"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Why<\/div>
Credit: Depositphotos<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We are living in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). AI dominates the headlines, spreads its influence into all spheres of life, and is increasingly seen as vital to the economic growth and national security of nations. The use of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude have become ubiquitous in daily life. Needless to say, the increased spread of AI \u2014 and its impact on relationships, employment, and other facets of society \u2014 has provoked trepidation among many.<\/p>\n

However, surveys consistently show that Asians \u2014 and in fact, most non-Western populations<\/a> \u2014 are much more enthusiastic and excited about AI than people from the West. According to a survey conducted by Ipsos in 2025, over 80 percent of respondents from the Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore said that AI will profoundly change<\/a> their lives in the next few years. Eighty-four percent of Chinese respondents said that products and services using AI excited them. Likewise, 65 percent<\/a> of Indians, 67 percent of Turks, and 69 percent of South Koreans felt the same way, compared to 38 percent of Americans, 31 percent of Canadians, 37 percent of the British, and 40 percent of the French.<\/p>\n

Whilst Japan was an outlier in the Ipsos survey, with 46 percent<\/a> of Japanese respondents indicating that they were excited about AI, in a separate survey by Pew<\/a>, only 28 percent of Japanese respondents said that they were more concerned than excited about AI. Similarly,<\/a> only 26 percent of people from Turkiye, 21 percent from Israel, 19 percent from India, and 16 percent from South Korea felt more concerned than excited about AI. Contrast this<\/a> with half of Americans responding that they were more concerned than excited about AI.<\/p>\n

There is therefore a clear and noticeable difference between Asian \u2014 and other non-Western populations \u2014 and Western attitudes toward AI that invites an explanation. There are several reasons why Asians are more enthusiastic about AI than Westerners.<\/p>\n

First, AI improves the life of an average citizen of an Asian country relative to any downsides that it may have. AI is seamlessly integrated into a wide number of day-to-day activities such that it feels like an ordinary part of life, or a tool to improve life, rather than as a threat. In China, for example, where trust in AI<\/a> is among the highest in the world, AI is embedded in many government services and private payment tools, so using it is unavoidable. According to Chinese journalist Nina Xiang, Chinese users tend to be pragmatic<\/a> in favoring convenience over privacy when it comes to AI use.<\/p>\n

In more advanced societies, such as Japan and South Korea, AI is useful for increasing productivity and performing tasks in economies with aging populations and falling birth rates.<\/p>\n

Even more importantly, AI is extremely useful<\/a> in places where educational, bureaucratic, and professional services are scarce or substandard, as is the case in many parts of India. In many villages, schools are often understaffed, with a single teacher teaching dozens of children whose learning styles may wildly differ. AI is useful in this scenario and preferable to the alternative of not learning, because it can tailor explanations and exercises to each individual\u2019s abilities. AI also compensates for weak institutions or helps individuals manage difficult tasks in a multilingual country with a difficult bureaucracy. Contrast this with Western countries, most of which have relatively efficient and functional governments that may not immediately require streamlining by AI, or the internet more generally. For example, India developed the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system<\/a> to deliver welfare directly to Indians rather than routing benefits through corrupt middlemen. AI has helped streamline this process.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, AI is significantly less disruptive to societies in which white-collar workers form a smaller percentage of the population. Most Western states have a higher proportion of white-collar workers than the rest of the world. The long development, over time, of the liberal arts and sciences in a collegiate or post-graduate environment ensured a large supply of quality teachers, researchers, lawyers, writers, and scientists who rely on working with texts and information. In short, the West gains from AI less, at least in the short term, given the structure of its economy and education system, along with its level of development. Correspondingly, Western societies also have more to lose from the disruption caused by AI. An LLM model may provide a poor child in Bihar with the best English teacher he has ever had but may put a struggling associate lawyer or a writer in New York City out of a job.<\/p>\n

Second, Asians see<\/a> AI, and technological progress in general, as key to national greatness<\/a>, economic development, and a brighter future. AI is not something to get queasy about or starve of funding. Beyond prosperity, there is also an element of geopolitical calculation in countries like China. In China, there is a pervasive narrative<\/a> that ties technology to national development and holds that China\u2019s past inability to keep up with the West led to its century of humiliation, during which technologically superior Western states with gunboats and rifles imposed their will on China.<\/p>\n

According to Natalia Cote-Mu\u00f1oz, a former official in the U.S. State Department, the consensus view<\/a> in Chinese public discourse is that China will advance while the West is starting to stagnate because of the increasing hostility toward AI among many in the West. Very few Chinese individuals are worried about potential job losses because they believe<\/a> that the government will find a way to apply the technology and insulate against widespread unemployment. In short, Chinese citizens understand that China is rising, the future will be better than the present, and that technology<\/a> will play a key part in all this, which is the opposite of how many Americans feel about the direction that technology is taking.<\/p>\n

Finally, many Asian philosophical traditions are less antagonistic toward AI. In the traditional religions of many Western societies, humanity is set above \u2014 and aside from \u2014 the other creations of God, such as animals and plants, as well as its own tools. In this worldview, recently expressed by Pope Leo XIV<\/a>, the special nature of humanity itself may be threatened by machines that mimic the human mind. As a result, robots and other AIs are often seen as threats and rivals, something often reflected in movies and novels.<\/p>\n

In Western imagination, the development and use of AI could be seen as a classic example of the Faustian bargain, whereby someone trades their soul or humanity for power, wealth, and knowledge. The Chinese government would reject this line of thought, because it sees AI as a useful tool like any other, one to be regulated, controlled, and aligned with its core values.<\/p>\n

Many Asian religions and philosophies also see intelligence and awareness as characteristics<\/a> of a number of beings, not limited to humans. In some schools of Hinduism, for example, jivas<\/em>, or souls, inhabit several creatures. These range from plants to devas<\/em> or gods. Human beings exist along a spectrum of consciousness between these two extremities. Japanese Shinto also believes that the world is filled with kami<\/em> or spirits, who may inhabit a number of inanimate and animate objects. Other schools of Hinduism, such as Advaita Vedanta, hold that the entire universe is conscious. Likewise, Daoism asserts that everything in the universe is made of qi<\/em>, or energy. Finally, Buddhism believes that all mental experiences are the result of a stream of processes made up of aggregates called skandhas<\/em>, which again, are not limited to human beings.<\/p>\n

As a result, the traditional cultural and philosophical underpinnings of Asian thought are less primed to believe the Western notion that AI is fundamentally different to or opposed to humanity and the essence of the human spirit. In many schools of thought in Asia, the boundary between mankind and all the rest of existence is less rigid than in Western philosophy and religion. Many Asian philosophies view AI as a part of the natural world, and thus something humanity can interface with, like other phenomena, such as animals and gods. While many Asians may not be explicitly aware of these philosophical points, the underlying ideas resonate with their culturally shaped worldviews, and could play a part in influencing their enthusiasm toward AI.<\/p>\n

Asians are more enthusiastic about AI because AI is not seen as a threat, as something that will make the future worse, poorer in both spirit and in personal wealth. In China, India, much of Southeast Asia, and elsewhere in Asia, the net benefits of AI are perceived by populations to be greater than their drawbacks. Asians regard AI as something that can be tamed, incorporated into societal development, and used as an instrument of individual and national empowerment.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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