《Hear Biteye Tell: N Stories of WAIC》 (Part 2) Six: The Real Money-Makers at WAIC Are the Street Vendors Wandering through WAIC, the only truly profitable scenes I witnessed were these: On the second floor of the main venue, four or five middle-aged men and women, carrying burlap sacks, slipped into the Embodied Intelligence Pavilion. They didn’t belong to any booth. Swiftly weaving through the dense crowds, they sat down and pulled out toy-car-sized “robot dogs” from their sacks. To be honest, their appearance did closely resemble Unitree’s Go2 robot dog. A man in a linen-colored T-shirt, with sun-darkened skin and a sly expression, caught my curious gaze and waved me over. “Three hundred yuan each. Three hundred yuan.” He made no effort to explain—because WAIC itself was a golden brand; anything present here was assumed to be cutting-edge and high-tech. Unfortunately, these 300-yuan robot dogs likely cost no more than a few dozen yuan in bulk at Yiwu’s small commodity market. They’re no different in essence from the toy cars we played with as children—still mechanical, still simple. Yet they’re the most profitable here precisely because they don’t need to spend a fortune on a booth—they thrive by piggybacking on WAIC’s reputation. I politely declined the man’s offer, but immediately more people gathered around. Compared to companion robots priced in the tens of thousands, perhaps these 300-yuan robot dogs are more practical? —Alan Seven: A Thousand Sails Pass by the Wrecked Ship: Where Do You Now Get Your AI Information? At the Xuhui West Bund exhibition hall, I noticed stark differences among content platforms. Bilibili had erected a wall at its booth with this statement: “Bilibili has become China’s most influential AI content community, home to the most concentrated AI-interested users—over 140 million monthly viewers consume AI content on Bilibili.” Here are some other interesting stats⬇️ · Over 80% of users watching AI-related content are post-95s. · Hundreds of thousands of AI-related videos receive over one million views daily. · Annual viewing time for AI content increased nearly 50% year-over-year. · The top 10 AI KOLs by followers nationwide are all Bilibili UP creators. · Annual submissions of AI-related content rose 130% year-over-year. In contrast, Zhihu’s booth—though sizable—showed almost no content related to Zhihu itself. Instead, Zhihu focused on promoting the Nubia Doudou smartphone and displayed projects created by Zhihu contributors using “vibe coding” on Macs. Staff bustled around a large round table, personally guiding visitors on how to perform basic vibe coding with Workbuddy. I used Bilibili’s data to ask Zhihu’s staff: “What advantages does Zhihu still hold in distributing AI KOL content?” After a moment of silence, they replied that perhaps some founders of large model companies still actively use Zhihu. AI is an industry with extremely high knowledge density. To reach the general public, content must be “high in aspiration but low in barrier”—high enough in information depth, yet low enough in comprehension threshold. In the early-to-mid internet era, Zhihu successfully connected these two ends by curating expert voices and built a thriving knowledge community. But now, the way AI information is produced is changing. “If you learn slowly enough, you don’t have to learn at all.” Large models and agents are evolving faster than ever. A product discussed yesterday may already be updated today. People no longer want long, structured, logically rigorous answers—they want immediate real-world tests. How stable is AIGC video generation? Is that agent just another shell? Different needs lead to different media forms. Zhihu’s decline isn’t Zhihu’s fault. —Alan Eight: But Robots May Not Be Far Off As soon as I entered the main WAIC venue, I was greeted by Unitree’s GD01—placed prominently at the entrance, where nearly every passerby stopped to take photos. In that moment, I had a powerful illusion: the future from childhood sci-fi movies had suddenly materialized in reality. Over recent years, Unitree has repeatedly entered public view—from performances on the Spring Festival Gala to major tech expos—constantly reshaping public imagination about robots. This time at WAIC, it was unsurprisingly one of the most popular booths. Upstairs, the crowd was thickest around Unitree’s booth. Without raising your phone high above your head, you couldn’t even see what robots were being demonstrated inside. At the center of the booth, two robots were engaged in a boxing match—moving fluidly, throwing punches, dodging with seamless transitions. Previously, our image of robots came from movies: massive mechanical bodies, slow movements, stiff motions. But what I saw here echoed childhood sci-fi dreams. These robots aren’t just machines following fixed programs—they’re beginning to exhibit human-like mobility. Especially when watching them execute continuous motions, you clearly feel: the future from those films may be closer than we thought. As robots become more agile and intelligent, will more industries be replaced by them? Repetitive labor in factories, logistics handling, home services—even dangerous jobs—may gradually be taken over by robots. Standing before Unitree’s robots, for the first time you truly feel: the future from the movies may have already arrived. —Changan