China's Cashless Revolution Just Showed Us Our AI Future—And Most of You Aren't Ready

A vending machine that won't take cash. Museum tickets only through WeChat. Taxis that ignore you without the right app. This isn't dystopian fiction, it's China today. And it's exactly what's about to happen with AI literacy, except faster and more brutal.

We have sleepwalked into the digital age, but nothing matches the speed of China's transformation. Seven years from cash to QR-only. No transition period. No mercy for the unprepared. Now multiply that velocity by AI's exponential growth. The shift from technical literacy to epistemic fluency won't give you seven years. You'll get seven months if you're lucky.

Here's what most miss: The internet age asked you to learn tools. Click here, type there. The AI age demands you question reality itself. When AI generates perfect lies wrapped in flawless prose, when voice clones call pretending to be family, when every image could be synthetic, epistemic fluency becomes survival. It's not about using ChatGPT. It's about knowing when ChatGPT is using you.

The parallels are terrifying. Just as cashless systems made the familiar foreign overnight, AI is already rewriting the rules of trust, work, and human interaction. I see AI-generated faces in ads, chatbots screening job applicants, children forming bonds with AI companions. Each step normalizes our obsolescence. Each convenience costs human agency.

In "Now What?", I explore how to navigate these exponential shifts. But the China example shows we're past theory. When basic services require digital fluency, exclusion isn't gradual, it's instant.

When AI fluency determines who gets hired, who gets healthcare, who gets heard, the unprepared don't just fall behind. They disappear.

• China: 0 to cashless in 7 years
• AI: Already infiltrating every interaction
• Your choice: Adapt now or become invisible

If China locked out millions with QR codes, what happens when AI literacy becomes the price of admission to society itself?

Read the full article on Every.

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💡 We're entering a world where intelligence is synthetic, reality is augmented, and the rules are being rewritten in front of our eyes.

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