Chinese Tech Daily — 2026-06-19#
Top Story#
OpenAI’s Codex has introduced a major “Record & Replay” feature that fundamentally shifts how AI interacts with software. Instead of relying on APIs, the AI visually observes a user’s workflow on the computer and packages it into a reusable skill, paving the way for a future where humans train AI to use software via graphical user interfaces rather than manually operating it themselves.
Engineering & Dev#
Broadcom released Spring Boot 4.1 after a slight delay, bringing highly anticipated out-of-the-box features like gRPC auto-configuration and HTTP client SSRF risk mitigation. The update also upgrades its Kotlin baseline to 2.3 and introduces delayed physical database connection fetching to improve startup speeds and reduce connection pool pressure. At the upcoming AICon 2026 Shanghai, the focus is heavily shifting from experimental agents to production-scale architectures, with Ping An Life showcasing its AI Aegis Platform. They will detail how they transitioned from reactive to proactive risk control using AI-driven inspection agents to secure tens of billions in transaction volume across complex payment ecosystems.
Products & Digital#
The highly popular AI model DeepSeek officially launched its “vision mode” on both web and app platforms, allowing users to upload images for multimodal analysis. Inside details from DeepSeek’s recent fundraising revealed the minimum investment threshold was lowered from 5 billion to 1.5 billion RMB, with CEO Liang Wenfeng strictly demanding that investors refrain from poaching DeepSeek’s team members or encouraging them to start new ventures. Meanwhile, early Chinese investors in the AI agent startup Manus, including HSG, ZhenFund, and Tencent, are reportedly planning a $2 billion buyback from Meta to restructure the company as a Chinese joint venture and prepare for a Hong Kong IPO. In other AI product news, Kimi Work updated its PC client with a 24-hour continuous “Target Mode” and a new Plugin Center featuring integrations with Notion, Feishu, and DingTalk. On the hardware front, Xiaomi open-sourced its Miloco 2.0 smart home AI solution, positioning it as an AI butler capable of proactive intelligence and long-term task management.
News & Commentary#
Smart cleaning brand Dreame is undergoing a major organizational restructuring, reportedly cutting approximately 12% of its workforce. Heavy-asset, long-cycle divisions like mobile phones, automotive, and chips are being moved into a newly established industry research institute to focus purely on R&D rather than immediate commercialization. Speaking at VivaTech in Paris, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos offered a contrarian view on AI’s economic impact, predicting that AI will create labor shortages rather than mass unemployment. He argued that by dramatically lowering the cost of execution, AI will unlock a massive backlog of previously unviable entrepreneurial ideas, driving up demand for builders and creators.
Also Noted#
- Noam Shazeer, co-author of the seminal Transformer paper, has left Google to join OpenAI.
- Cao Cao Mobility announced its “RoboX” strategy, aiming to deploy 100,000 Robotaxis and 100,000 Robovans by 2030.
- The Orange Pi 6 standard edition development board was unveiled, featuring 45 TOPS of AI computing power for edge AI and local inference.
- Counterpoint reports that Huawei’s smartphone sales grew 23% YoY in week 20, defying an 8% global market decline.
- Lalamove (Huolala) was summoned by the SAMR over antitrust concerns and promised to stop algorithmic price suppression and remove mandatory car stickers.
- Rockstar Games confirmed that Grand Theft Auto VI pre-orders will open on June 25 ahead of its planned November 19 release.
- A variety of new entertainment options were highlighted in sspai’s weekly watch list, including the Hong Kong legal drama “COURT!” and a new Netflix documentary on tennis legend Rafael Nadal.