China AI Digest (Apr 12, 2026)

Three podcasts, three angles on the same moment. AI Next — the Microsoft Research Asia show that is itself AI-generated — dives into VibeVoice, VASA and TRELLIS and argues the creative bottleneck is collapsing. Zhang Xiaoyun interviews Natural Selection founder Tristan Zhang about Elys, his AI social network built on cyber avatars, context, and the problem of human loneliness. Dafang Says AI+ argues AI isn’t eliminating jobs — it’s triggering a species-level evolution of how work itself is organised.