Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, is another social platform that has become increasingly popular among the young, urban, and educated classes in China. Some junior AI researchers have opened accounts on Xiaohongshu recently and use them to share details about their work, but the audience is less technical than what they might find on X.
When Moonshot published a new research paper in March, it caused quite a stir on both Chinese and Western social media, even attracting praise from Elon Musk. But “almost everyone on Zhihu and Xiaohongshu were talking about the background and age of the authors—one of them is only 17—and who their parents are, things that I find very superficial and gossipy,” says a current researcher at Moonshot who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. “It was the foreign readers who actually discussed technical details and praised its breakthroughs.” He says readers on Zhihu also tend to be more mean-spirited, and the platform is plagued by higher amounts of AI slop than X.
Moonshot did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Chinese newcomers have generally received a warm welcome from academics and researchers at Western AI companies who were already on X, many of whom have been eager for direct information about Chinese AI labs. “Before they all came to X, we already saw a lot of influential researchers translating Chinese [AI] blogs into English,” says Wang. He points to Su Jianlin, a well-respected AI researcher who keeps an active blog in Chinese documenting his thoughts, as an example of the kind of voices that Western AI communities crave. Now, Su is working for Moonshot and has a public X account, too.
Other Incentives
Beyond the desire to participate in open discussions, Chinese AI companies are also finding that X is an effective place to market themselves and their products. “X is the platform with the highest traffic and exposure. To some extent, the AI industry works just like the finance industry now, each individual and company needs their own branding,” says Meng.
When AI researchers become minor social media celebrities, that helps boost the profile of their employers, too. Wang says he personally advised Moonshot during a one-off consultation session for the company in 2025 to push more of its researchers to the front on social media. When a startup releases a new model or paper, “it’s more interesting to see what they as a person want to post, instead of the official announcement,” Wang says, “And this would definitely help them gather more feedback from the audience. And they can talk to other researchers and potentially trigger some collaboration.”
Moonshot has already proven that it has an ample supply of charismatic personalities. The company is often described in China media as one of the AI labs with the most interesting internal cultures, where the CEO plastered his office with band posters and other souvenirs celebrating his love for rock music. The Chinese name of the company, 月之暗面, literally comes from Pink Floyd’s album The Dark Side of the Moon.
Having Chinese AI researchers explain their work in their own words on X is a net benefit for the United States, Wang says, because it reduces the need for blind speculation about what Chinese AI labs are doing. “People have a lot of wrong hallucinations about what China is doing. And now, X is the door for them to better understand China,” Wang says.
This is an edition of Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsakis’ Made in China newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.
