A looming question mark is how companies will build competitive moats; true tech differentiation is rare, and companies will need to find ways to stay ahead of competition, perhaps with network effects or with iterative loops of user engagement and product refinement.

First-wave AI has given birth to entirely new, AI-driven internet companies. China’s leader in this category is Jinri Toutiao (meaning “today’s headlines”; English name: “ByteDance”). Founded in 2012, Toutiao is sometimes called “the BuzzFeed of China” because both sites serve as hubs for timely viral stories. But virality is where the similarities