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I’ve Been Reviewing Laptops For a Decade—These Are My Prime Day Picks

I’ve Been Reviewing Laptops For a Decade—These Are My Prime Day Picks

You’ve gotta be careful buying random laptops on Amazon. There’s a lot of junk masquerading as good deals, especially when you get under $500. Don’t fall for it. Below, you’ll find the best Prime Day laptop deals on devices and accessories we’ve personally reviewed. More than ever, it’s possible to get an affordable computer you won’t instantly regret buying or a great discount on one you’ve had your eye on. Read our Best Prime Day Deals roundup or Prime Day Liveblog for more.

Updated July 11, 2025: We’ve updated pricing throughout and removed dead deals as this quadrotastic Prime Day comes to its insane conclusion.

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Laptop Deals

The Best MacBook Deal

Photograph: Brenda Stolyar

Apple

MacBook Air (M4, 2025)

Yes, the MacBook Air M4 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is the top pick in our Best Laptops and Best MacBooks guides. But it’s also the laptop I find myself recommending to my friends and family most. There’s no other laptop under $1,000 that combines this balance of super-fast performance and a day’s worth of battery life, all in a chassis that is still the thinnest in the game. It even comes with 16 GB of RAM, though you may want to jump up to 512 GB of storage. Even with how much Apple charges to increase storage, it’s well worth it given how cheap it is right now.

A Reliable Surface Laptop

  • Image may contain: Computer, Electronics, Laptop, Pc, Computer Hardware, Computer Keyboard, Hardware, Monitor, and Screen

    Courtesy of Microsoft

  • Image may contain: Computer, Electronics, Laptop, Pc, Computer Hardware, Computer Keyboard, Hardware, and Tablet Computer

    Photograph: Brenda Stolyar

Microsoft

Surface Laptop Copilot+ PC (7th Edition, 2024)

When I first reviewed the Surface Laptop 13.8-inch, also known as the Surface Laptop 7th Edition (7/10, WIRED Recommends), it instantly became my daily driver. My favorite feature of the laptop is the display. It’s sharp and fast (with its 120-Hz refresh rate), but it’s the 3:2 aspect ratio display that really sets it apart. It’s a taller screen, and I love being able to see more of my work vertically. More than that, in its latest version, it finally gets great performance and battery life thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Pro (or even better, Elite) chips. There’s also a newer, more affordable model (confusingly called the Surface Laptop 13), but it doesn’t have a lot of the features I like most about the 13.8-inch model. For what it’s worth, you can also pick up the base configuration for just $870.

A Sensible Chromebook Plus

Acer Chromebook Plus 515 laptop

Photograph: Best Buy

If you’re coming to Prime Day looking for something dirt cheap, I’ve got one for you. Yes, this device is a Chromebook, but as a “Chromebook Plus” model, it’s a big step up from the reputation these laptops have when kids are introduced to them in schools. The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 comes with a 1080p display, a spacious 15.6-inch display, and an Intel Core i3 processor. The screen isn’t a touchscreen, but there’s good port selection and decent speakers. For the price, it’s a really strong machine if your needs aren’t high.

A Killer Deal on a Tiny Laptop

Front view of the Lenovo Chromebook Duet, showing the tablet attached to the keyboard with landscape scenery on the screen

Photograph: Daniel Thorp-Lancaster

Lenovo

Chromebook Duet Gen 9 (11 Inch, MediaTek)

Want a tiny laptop you can take anywhere? If you’re OK working within the confines of a Chromebook, then Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet is a must-have and a steal at this price. The 11-inch LCD is compact, and the trackpad and keyboard can feel cramped, but the overall build quality is great, the display is vivid, and performance is snappy.

The Cheapest Laptop You Should Buy

Image may contain: Computer, Electronics, Laptop, Pc, Computer Hardware, Hardware, Monitor, and Screen

Photograph: Luke Larsen

Don’t buy a Windows laptop under $300. It will just be sadness. If you need a super cheap laptop, Chromebooks are the way to go. Acer’s Chromebook CX15 is the best laptop you can get for under $300. Grab the version with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. The 1080p, 15-inch screen doesn’t have great color accuracy, but the 300 nits of brightness are nice. Likewise, the Intel Celeron CPU is no speed demon, but it’s fine for browsing the web and light document work. There’s also a 4 GB configuration selling for even less over at Walmart—just $159.

The Cheapest MacBook Ever

Macbook Air

Courtesy of Apple

Apple

MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

I don’t usually recommend nearly five-year-old laptops. Rarely are they discounted heavily enough to warrant the compromise. But for Prime Day this year, Walmart has dropped the price of the M1 MacBook Air to just $599. Of course, you can still buy the refurbished models for even less, but this Walmart discount is as cheap as a new MacBook has ever been sold for, sitting $250 lower than the current discount on the latest M4 MacBook Air. While I recommend most people buy the newer model, I won’t fault you for wanting to save some money, and for the right person, the M1 MacBook Air will make you very happy and last for many years.

Accessory Deals

A Stylish Stand

Branch Laptop Stand on a desk

Photograph: Branch

Branch

Adjustable Laptop Stand

If something’s going to be sitting on your desk every day, it may as well be pretty. Branch is already known for that as a brand—it makes our favorite office chair—but this laptop stand really does look gorgeous. The combination of the walnut-colored wood and clean, minimalist aesthetic does just enough to spice up what is otherwise a pretty basic peripheral. There’s just not a better laptop stand out there.

For Extra Ports

Anker 5-in-1 USB-C hub

Photograph: Anker

When it comes to small accessories, sometimes simpler is better. That’s why this Anker USB-C hub just makes so much sense. Especially in a world where most laptops have limited ports, it’s the kind of thing almost everyone needs. Plenty of USB hubs offer a wider variety of ports and even external monitor support, but this Anker USB-C Hub is too convenient and cheap not to have.

The GOAT Mouse

Logitech MX Master 3S, a black computer mouse, on top of a leather mousepad

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Oh, you know. It’s that mouse. The one everyone raves about. And for Prime Day, it’s at its lowest price ever at $95, 21 percent off its retail price. And in case you’re wondering, it really is that good. If you’ve never used more than something basic like the Apple Magic Mouse, you’ll quickly appreciate not only the clicky buttons and grippy scroll wheels, but also the added ergonomics. Trust me, your thumb and wrist will thank you later.

A Fantastic Gaming Keyboard

Image may contain: Computer, Computer Hardware, Computer Keyboard, Electronics, and Hardware

The Logitech G Pro X TKL tops our list as the best keyboard you can buy, and for good reason. The tactile switches (also known as linear switches) feel luscious, and I find the TKL (lack of number pad) layout to be ideal for gaming, never getting in the way of my mouse hand, but not making non-gaming inconvenient. While it’s normally a bit expensive, this sale price makes it an absolute must-buy if you’re looking for a gaming keyboard.

An Enhanced USB Hub

Satechi USB-C Hybrid usb hub

Photograph: Satechi

Satechi

USB-C Hybrid Multiport Adapter

Everyone needs a USB-C hub, but this one has one handy feature that most don’t: a built-in M.2 enclosure. That means in addition to having your basic ports covered, you can also pop in an SSD and use this as a secondary drive. The SSD isn’t included, but it greatly expands what this little accessory can do. It’s the ultimate companion to your laptop.

Is Prime Day a Good Time To Buy a Laptop?

It can be, yes. I’ve seen some laptop deals pop up that just aren’t available at other times. For example, at the start of this week, my favorite cheap laptop, the Vivobook 14 (Snapdragon X) was on sale for just $550—that’s $200 off the original price and $100 off the previous lowest price. A day later, it was sold out. That’s the kind of thing big sales events like Prime Day are good for.

Meanwhile, there are discounts on really popular laptops like the M4 MacBook Air. While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen it at $850, it’s still a great deal nonetheless. I’d be careless to not mention it, as it’s the laptop I think most people should buy.

What Should I Look for in a Laptop?

There’s a lot to consider. We run through the entire thought process in our How to Choose a Laptop guide, but you want to start with what kind of laptop you need. Gaming laptops need discrete GPUs and fast refresh rate displays. Content creation devices need fast CPUs and GPUs, tons of RAM, and color-accurate screens. If it’s your primary work computer, you may want a larger 16-inch screen or the ability to connect lots of external displays.

Most people, though, just need a reliable computer with long battery life, the ports they need, and a display that won’t distract them. That’s why we recommend laptops like the M4 MacBook Air, Surface Laptop (7th Edition), and Asus Zenbook S 14 OLED. They net you starting RAM of 16 GB, have high-end displays, and come in highly portable form factors. They also provide the high-end build quality and battery life you need, without making you pay for extra performance you won’t use.

You may be looking for something cheaper, however, which is where Chromebooks come into play. If you’re hoping to spend under $500, you are better off getting a Chromebook than a budget Windows laptop. They have limitations, but will often get you better performance out of the hardware.


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The price of eggs has become a marker of the state of the economy. But how about the cost of making eggs? Sure, you might be able to do it for next to nothing in your kitchen with nothing but a pan and a burner. But you could also pay $400 for a robot that will do it for you—as long as you don’t want your eggs scrambled, that is.

A new Kickstarter project has finally given us a Juicero for the robotics era, and it’s called E.G.O.R. (that’s Efficient Gastronomic Operational Robot), brought to you by the startup Cheffy. It’s an automated egg maker that promises perfect cracks every time with no shell in the yolk. It has seven different ways that it can cook them up for you, or you can just use it to do the cracking. You can also pair it with a toaster so your eggs and toast finish at the exact right time.

This isn’t something anyone really needs. Cooking an egg over easy takes about two minutes, so calling this a time-saver is a stretch. And if you really don’t want to use the stove, you can buy a basic egg cooker for around $20 almost anywhere. Maybe you’re bad at cracking eggs, but $400 (well, $200 if you get in on the early bird deal) is a lot to pay to not have to pick the occasional shell pieces out.

But hey, the robotics era needed its Juicero moment. To the creator’s credit: it seems like they’re treating this more like a fun novelty (albeit a pretty pricey one) rather than something revolutionary. They also aren’t making you buy proprietary eggs that are required to make the machine work, so they’ve got the Juicero bros beat there.

We’re increasingly seeing robots positioned to do basic tasks. A company called Weave got attention earlier this year with an $8,000 robot that folds clothes. There’s a company in San Francisco offering house cleanings performed by humanoid robots. Last year, 1x made waves by introducing its Neo humanoid robot, which the Wall Street Journal reported “nearly toppled over” while closing a dishwasher and struggled to open the refrigerator.

All of these machines cost an inordinate amount of money to do things that do not cost the average person that much time or money to accomplish. They’re novel, sure. But you don’t have to pay a premium to be a beta tester.

#Robot #Revolution #Juiceroartifical intelligence,automation,Robotics">The Robot Revolution Gets Its Own Juicero
                The price of eggs has become a marker of the state of the economy. But how about the cost of making eggs? Sure, you might be able to do it for next to nothing in your kitchen with nothing but a pan and a burner. But you could also pay 0 for a robot that will do it for you—as long as you don’t want your eggs scrambled, that is. A new Kickstarter project has finally given us a Juicero for the robotics era, and it’s called E.G.O.R. (that’s Efficient Gastronomic Operational Robot), brought to you by the startup Cheffy. It’s an automated egg maker that promises perfect cracks every time with no shell in the yolk. It has seven different ways that it can cook them up for you, or you can just use it to do the cracking. You can also pair it with a toaster so your eggs and toast finish at the exact right time.  NEW: Cheffy just launched a robot that cracks and cooks your eggs. Egor automates breakfast by cooking eggs 7 ways, while Toastr syncs your toast so everything finishes together. -Automatically cracks eggs with no shells or mess-Cooks eggs 7 ways, from sunny-side up to hard… pic.twitter.com/auE3SnfrS3 — Ritwik Pavan (@ritwikpavan) July 30, 2026  This isn’t something anyone really needs. Cooking an egg over easy takes about two minutes, so calling this a time-saver is a stretch. And if you really don’t want to use the stove, you can buy a basic egg cooker for around  almost anywhere. Maybe you’re bad at cracking eggs, but 0 (well, 0 if you get in on the early bird deal) is a lot to pay to not have to pick the occasional shell pieces out.

 But hey, the robotics era needed its Juicero moment. To the creator’s credit: it seems like they’re treating this more like a fun novelty (albeit a pretty pricey one) rather than something revolutionary. They also aren’t making you buy proprietary eggs that are required to make the machine work, so they’ve got the Juicero bros beat there.

 We’re increasingly seeing robots positioned to do basic tasks. A company called Weave got attention earlier this year with an ,000 robot that folds clothes. There’s a company in San Francisco offering house cleanings performed by humanoid robots. Last year, 1x made waves by introducing its Neo humanoid robot, which the Wall Street Journal reported “nearly toppled over” while closing a dishwasher and struggled to open the refrigerator. All of these machines cost an inordinate amount of money to do things that do not cost the average person that much time or money to accomplish. They’re novel, sure. But you don’t have to pay a premium to be a beta tester.      #Robot #Revolution #Juiceroartifical intelligence,automation,Robotics

Kickstarter project has finally given us a Juicero for the robotics era, and it’s called E.G.O.R. (that’s Efficient Gastronomic Operational Robot), brought to you by the startup Cheffy. It’s an automated egg maker that promises perfect cracks every time with no shell in the yolk. It has seven different ways that it can cook them up for you, or you can just use it to do the cracking. You can also pair it with a toaster so your eggs and toast finish at the exact right time.

This isn’t something anyone really needs. Cooking an egg over easy takes about two minutes, so calling this a time-saver is a stretch. And if you really don’t want to use the stove, you can buy a basic egg cooker for around $20 almost anywhere. Maybe you’re bad at cracking eggs, but $400 (well, $200 if you get in on the early bird deal) is a lot to pay to not have to pick the occasional shell pieces out.

But hey, the robotics era needed its Juicero moment. To the creator’s credit: it seems like they’re treating this more like a fun novelty (albeit a pretty pricey one) rather than something revolutionary. They also aren’t making you buy proprietary eggs that are required to make the machine work, so they’ve got the Juicero bros beat there.

We’re increasingly seeing robots positioned to do basic tasks. A company called Weave got attention earlier this year with an $8,000 robot that folds clothes. There’s a company in San Francisco offering house cleanings performed by humanoid robots. Last year, 1x made waves by introducing its Neo humanoid robot, which the Wall Street Journal reported “nearly toppled over” while closing a dishwasher and struggled to open the refrigerator.

All of these machines cost an inordinate amount of money to do things that do not cost the average person that much time or money to accomplish. They’re novel, sure. But you don’t have to pay a premium to be a beta tester.

#Robot #Revolution #Juiceroartifical intelligence,automation,Robotics">The Robot Revolution Gets Its Own JuiceroThe Robot Revolution Gets Its Own Juicero
                The price of eggs has become a marker of the state of the economy. But how about the cost of making eggs? Sure, you might be able to do it for next to nothing in your kitchen with nothing but a pan and a burner. But you could also pay $400 for a robot that will do it for you—as long as you don’t want your eggs scrambled, that is. A new Kickstarter project has finally given us a Juicero for the robotics era, and it’s called E.G.O.R. (that’s Efficient Gastronomic Operational Robot), brought to you by the startup Cheffy. It’s an automated egg maker that promises perfect cracks every time with no shell in the yolk. It has seven different ways that it can cook them up for you, or you can just use it to do the cracking. You can also pair it with a toaster so your eggs and toast finish at the exact right time.  NEW: Cheffy just launched a robot that cracks and cooks your eggs. Egor automates breakfast by cooking eggs 7 ways, while Toastr syncs your toast so everything finishes together. -Automatically cracks eggs with no shells or mess-Cooks eggs 7 ways, from sunny-side up to hard… pic.twitter.com/auE3SnfrS3 — Ritwik Pavan (@ritwikpavan) July 30, 2026  This isn’t something anyone really needs. Cooking an egg over easy takes about two minutes, so calling this a time-saver is a stretch. And if you really don’t want to use the stove, you can buy a basic egg cooker for around $20 almost anywhere. Maybe you’re bad at cracking eggs, but $400 (well, $200 if you get in on the early bird deal) is a lot to pay to not have to pick the occasional shell pieces out.

 But hey, the robotics era needed its Juicero moment. To the creator’s credit: it seems like they’re treating this more like a fun novelty (albeit a pretty pricey one) rather than something revolutionary. They also aren’t making you buy proprietary eggs that are required to make the machine work, so they’ve got the Juicero bros beat there.

 We’re increasingly seeing robots positioned to do basic tasks. A company called Weave got attention earlier this year with an $8,000 robot that folds clothes. There’s a company in San Francisco offering house cleanings performed by humanoid robots. Last year, 1x made waves by introducing its Neo humanoid robot, which the Wall Street Journal reported “nearly toppled over” while closing a dishwasher and struggled to open the refrigerator. All of these machines cost an inordinate amount of money to do things that do not cost the average person that much time or money to accomplish. They’re novel, sure. But you don’t have to pay a premium to be a beta tester.      #Robot #Revolution #Juiceroartifical intelligence,automation,Robotics

The price of eggs has become a marker of the state of the economy. But how about the cost of making eggs? Sure, you might be able to do it for next to nothing in your kitchen with nothing but a pan and a burner. But you could also pay $400 for a robot that will do it for you—as long as you don’t want your eggs scrambled, that is.

A new Kickstarter project has finally given us a Juicero for the robotics era, and it’s called E.G.O.R. (that’s Efficient Gastronomic Operational Robot), brought to you by the startup Cheffy. It’s an automated egg maker that promises perfect cracks every time with no shell in the yolk. It has seven different ways that it can cook them up for you, or you can just use it to do the cracking. You can also pair it with a toaster so your eggs and toast finish at the exact right time.

This isn’t something anyone really needs. Cooking an egg over easy takes about two minutes, so calling this a time-saver is a stretch. And if you really don’t want to use the stove, you can buy a basic egg cooker for around $20 almost anywhere. Maybe you’re bad at cracking eggs, but $400 (well, $200 if you get in on the early bird deal) is a lot to pay to not have to pick the occasional shell pieces out.

But hey, the robotics era needed its Juicero moment. To the creator’s credit: it seems like they’re treating this more like a fun novelty (albeit a pretty pricey one) rather than something revolutionary. They also aren’t making you buy proprietary eggs that are required to make the machine work, so they’ve got the Juicero bros beat there.

We’re increasingly seeing robots positioned to do basic tasks. A company called Weave got attention earlier this year with an $8,000 robot that folds clothes. There’s a company in San Francisco offering house cleanings performed by humanoid robots. Last year, 1x made waves by introducing its Neo humanoid robot, which the Wall Street Journal reported “nearly toppled over” while closing a dishwasher and struggled to open the refrigerator.

All of these machines cost an inordinate amount of money to do things that do not cost the average person that much time or money to accomplish. They’re novel, sure. But you don’t have to pay a premium to be a beta tester.

#Robot #Revolution #Juiceroartifical intelligence,automation,Robotics

The prevailing narrative in Silicon Valley is that Chinese AI models like Kimi K3 and DeepSeek R1 came out of nowhere. But the truth is that even if you never travel to China, there’s an easy way to get a sense of what Chinese AI researchers are up to: log on to X.

In the past year, I’ve seen a steady increase of Chinese artificial intelligence researchers joining X and participating in the wider discourse about AI development and commercialization. Take Moonshot AI, the company behind Kimi K3, as an example. On Thursday, I was able to quickly find around 30 accounts on X run by people who claim to be currently affiliated with Moonshot, including two of the startup’s cofounders, as well as half a dozen former employees and collaborators. And these are not dormant accounts: They talk about Moonshot’s big releases and incremental research papers, make friends with Western researchers, and share details about their personal life and hobbies.

Moonshot is arguably the Chinese AI lab that’s most active on X, but you will easily find executives and technical staff from other leading Chinese startups, like Minimax and Z.ai. Even several employees at DeepSeek, who reportedly are unable to leave China because the government confiscated their passports, regularly post on X about the latest AI news and share job listings to recruit new talent.

“X is the best community” for AI discussions right now, says Meng Fanqing, cofounder of the startup Evolvent AI and a former intern at Moonshot, where he worked on the Kimi K2.5 model. “There are both Chinese and overseas audiences, and the recommendation algorithm works pretty well for showing you content in the same circle that you are in,” he says. Compared with Chinese platforms, where it’s often hard to have serious technical discussions, Chinese researchers like Meng say they would rather spend their time on X.

Meng says he started actively posting on X in mid-2025. At the start of the year, DeepSeek’s R1 model went viral around the world, shining a bright spotlight on China’s AI industry. Many Chinese researchers seized the moment and joined X to start sharing their perspective. “Around that time, all the Chinese researchers are starting to think about branding on an international level,” Meng says.

Chinese AI researchers may also be helping fill a growing gap left by researchers at OpenAI and Anthropic, who have become more reluctant to share their thinking online as their employers have grown into behemoth companies, says Tiezhen Wang, an independent AI analyst and former researcher at Hugging Face. “I guess they feel that their model architecture and how they train the model is kind of a secret, so they’re posting less,” Wang explains. As a result, Chinese researchers are getting more attention from audiences on X who are hungry to make sense of what’s happening in the fast-moving world of AI.

Why Choose X?

One reason X may have become popular among Chinese AI researchers is that there’s not really a comparable social platform in China for high-quality technical discussions about AI and other emerging technologies.

Some people say they used to post on Zhihu, a Quora-like platform that once branded itself as the premier destination for educated professionals to show and tell. But since 2020, Zhihu has increasingly pivoted to hosting fiction content, and expert contributors have gradually fallen off. For example, Deng Yu, a Chinese mathematician who was awarded a Fields Medal this year, publicly wrote on Zhihu in 2018 that he decided to stop posting on the site due to the rise of low-quality content.

#Chinese #Researchers #Finding #Voicemade in china,china,artificial intelligence,x,twitter,rednote,deepseek">Chinese AI Researchers Are Finding Their Voice on XThe prevailing narrative in Silicon Valley is that Chinese AI models like Kimi K3 and DeepSeek R1 came out of nowhere. But the truth is that even if you never travel to China, there’s an easy way to get a sense of what Chinese AI researchers are up to: log on to X.In the past year, I’ve seen a steady increase of Chinese artificial intelligence researchers joining X and participating in the wider discourse about AI development and commercialization. Take Moonshot AI, the company behind Kimi K3, as an example. On Thursday, I was able to quickly find around 30 accounts on X run by people who claim to be currently affiliated with Moonshot, including two of the startup’s cofounders, as well as half a dozen former employees and collaborators. And these are not dormant accounts: They talk about Moonshot’s big releases and incremental research papers, make friends with Western researchers, and share details about their personal life and hobbies.Moonshot is arguably the Chinese AI lab that’s most active on X, but you will easily find executives and technical staff from other leading Chinese startups, like Minimax and Z.ai. Even several employees at DeepSeek, who reportedly are unable to leave China because the government confiscated their passports, regularly post on X about the latest AI news and share job listings to recruit new talent.“X is the best community” for AI discussions right now, says Meng Fanqing, cofounder of the startup Evolvent AI and a former intern at Moonshot, where he worked on the Kimi K2.5 model. “There are both Chinese and overseas audiences, and the recommendation algorithm works pretty well for showing you content in the same circle that you are in,” he says. Compared with Chinese platforms, where it’s often hard to have serious technical discussions, Chinese researchers like Meng say they would rather spend their time on X.Meng says he started actively posting on X in mid-2025. At the start of the year, DeepSeek’s R1 model went viral around the world, shining a bright spotlight on China’s AI industry. Many Chinese researchers seized the moment and joined X to start sharing their perspective. “Around that time, all the Chinese researchers are starting to think about branding on an international level,” Meng says.Chinese AI researchers may also be helping fill a growing gap left by researchers at OpenAI and Anthropic, who have become more reluctant to share their thinking online as their employers have grown into behemoth companies, says Tiezhen Wang, an independent AI analyst and former researcher at Hugging Face. “I guess they feel that their model architecture and how they train the model is kind of a secret, so they’re posting less,” Wang explains. As a result, Chinese researchers are getting more attention from audiences on X who are hungry to make sense of what’s happening in the fast-moving world of AI.Why Choose X?One reason X may have become popular among Chinese AI researchers is that there’s not really a comparable social platform in China for high-quality technical discussions about AI and other emerging technologies.Some people say they used to post on Zhihu, a Quora-like platform that once branded itself as the premier destination for educated professionals to show and tell. But since 2020, Zhihu has increasingly pivoted to hosting fiction content, and expert contributors have gradually fallen off. For example, Deng Yu, a Chinese mathematician who was awarded a Fields Medal this year, publicly wrote on Zhihu in 2018 that he decided to stop posting on the site due to the rise of low-quality content.#Chinese #Researchers #Finding #Voicemade in china,china,artificial intelligence,x,twitter,rednote,deepseek

Chinese AI models like Kimi K3 and DeepSeek R1 came out of nowhere. But the truth is that even if you never travel to China, there’s an easy way to get a sense of what Chinese AI researchers are up to: log on to X.

In the past year, I’ve seen a steady increase of Chinese artificial intelligence researchers joining X and participating in the wider discourse about AI development and commercialization. Take Moonshot AI, the company behind Kimi K3, as an example. On Thursday, I was able to quickly find around 30 accounts on X run by people who claim to be currently affiliated with Moonshot, including two of the startup’s cofounders, as well as half a dozen former employees and collaborators. And these are not dormant accounts: They talk about Moonshot’s big releases and incremental research papers, make friends with Western researchers, and share details about their personal life and hobbies.

Moonshot is arguably the Chinese AI lab that’s most active on X, but you will easily find executives and technical staff from other leading Chinese startups, like Minimax and Z.ai. Even several employees at DeepSeek, who reportedly are unable to leave China because the government confiscated their passports, regularly post on X about the latest AI news and share job listings to recruit new talent.

“X is the best community” for AI discussions right now, says Meng Fanqing, cofounder of the startup Evolvent AI and a former intern at Moonshot, where he worked on the Kimi K2.5 model. “There are both Chinese and overseas audiences, and the recommendation algorithm works pretty well for showing you content in the same circle that you are in,” he says. Compared with Chinese platforms, where it’s often hard to have serious technical discussions, Chinese researchers like Meng say they would rather spend their time on X.

Meng says he started actively posting on X in mid-2025. At the start of the year, DeepSeek’s R1 model went viral around the world, shining a bright spotlight on China’s AI industry. Many Chinese researchers seized the moment and joined X to start sharing their perspective. “Around that time, all the Chinese researchers are starting to think about branding on an international level,” Meng says.

Chinese AI researchers may also be helping fill a growing gap left by researchers at OpenAI and Anthropic, who have become more reluctant to share their thinking online as their employers have grown into behemoth companies, says Tiezhen Wang, an independent AI analyst and former researcher at Hugging Face. “I guess they feel that their model architecture and how they train the model is kind of a secret, so they’re posting less,” Wang explains. As a result, Chinese researchers are getting more attention from audiences on X who are hungry to make sense of what’s happening in the fast-moving world of AI.

Why Choose X?

One reason X may have become popular among Chinese AI researchers is that there’s not really a comparable social platform in China for high-quality technical discussions about AI and other emerging technologies.

Some people say they used to post on Zhihu, a Quora-like platform that once branded itself as the premier destination for educated professionals to show and tell. But since 2020, Zhihu has increasingly pivoted to hosting fiction content, and expert contributors have gradually fallen off. For example, Deng Yu, a Chinese mathematician who was awarded a Fields Medal this year, publicly wrote on Zhihu in 2018 that he decided to stop posting on the site due to the rise of low-quality content.

#Chinese #Researchers #Finding #Voicemade in china,china,artificial intelligence,x,twitter,rednote,deepseek">Chinese AI Researchers Are Finding Their Voice on X

The prevailing narrative in Silicon Valley is that Chinese AI models like Kimi K3 and DeepSeek R1 came out of nowhere. But the truth is that even if you never travel to China, there’s an easy way to get a sense of what Chinese AI researchers are up to: log on to X.

In the past year, I’ve seen a steady increase of Chinese artificial intelligence researchers joining X and participating in the wider discourse about AI development and commercialization. Take Moonshot AI, the company behind Kimi K3, as an example. On Thursday, I was able to quickly find around 30 accounts on X run by people who claim to be currently affiliated with Moonshot, including two of the startup’s cofounders, as well as half a dozen former employees and collaborators. And these are not dormant accounts: They talk about Moonshot’s big releases and incremental research papers, make friends with Western researchers, and share details about their personal life and hobbies.

Moonshot is arguably the Chinese AI lab that’s most active on X, but you will easily find executives and technical staff from other leading Chinese startups, like Minimax and Z.ai. Even several employees at DeepSeek, who reportedly are unable to leave China because the government confiscated their passports, regularly post on X about the latest AI news and share job listings to recruit new talent.

“X is the best community” for AI discussions right now, says Meng Fanqing, cofounder of the startup Evolvent AI and a former intern at Moonshot, where he worked on the Kimi K2.5 model. “There are both Chinese and overseas audiences, and the recommendation algorithm works pretty well for showing you content in the same circle that you are in,” he says. Compared with Chinese platforms, where it’s often hard to have serious technical discussions, Chinese researchers like Meng say they would rather spend their time on X.

Meng says he started actively posting on X in mid-2025. At the start of the year, DeepSeek’s R1 model went viral around the world, shining a bright spotlight on China’s AI industry. Many Chinese researchers seized the moment and joined X to start sharing their perspective. “Around that time, all the Chinese researchers are starting to think about branding on an international level,” Meng says.

Chinese AI researchers may also be helping fill a growing gap left by researchers at OpenAI and Anthropic, who have become more reluctant to share their thinking online as their employers have grown into behemoth companies, says Tiezhen Wang, an independent AI analyst and former researcher at Hugging Face. “I guess they feel that their model architecture and how they train the model is kind of a secret, so they’re posting less,” Wang explains. As a result, Chinese researchers are getting more attention from audiences on X who are hungry to make sense of what’s happening in the fast-moving world of AI.

Why Choose X?

One reason X may have become popular among Chinese AI researchers is that there’s not really a comparable social platform in China for high-quality technical discussions about AI and other emerging technologies.

Some people say they used to post on Zhihu, a Quora-like platform that once branded itself as the premier destination for educated professionals to show and tell. But since 2020, Zhihu has increasingly pivoted to hosting fiction content, and expert contributors have gradually fallen off. For example, Deng Yu, a Chinese mathematician who was awarded a Fields Medal this year, publicly wrote on Zhihu in 2018 that he decided to stop posting on the site due to the rise of low-quality content.

#Chinese #Researchers #Finding #Voicemade in china,china,artificial intelligence,x,twitter,rednote,deepseek

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