AI and alcohol have three main similarities, according to Beijing bar owner Song De: hallucinations, bubbles and distillation. As AI enthusiasm sweeps across China, Song hopes his bar can ride the wave. He opened AGI Bar, named after the concept of artificial general intelligence where AI systems surpass human intelligence, last year in Zhongguancun, the capital's high-tech neighbourhood in Haidian district. It is now a hub for Beijing's AI developers, investors and students.
"You'll see people sitting around a table coming from different labs, competing companies, and different universities, all chatting about industry trends right here," said Song, an independent AI developer in his thirties who runs the bar in his spare time. Located on Zhongguancun's Inno Way startup street, the bar is a stone's throw from the elite Tsinghua and Peking universities that produce China's top AI talent, as well as the offices of well-known Chinese and Western tech firms, including DeepSeek and Microsoft. It has hosted parties for Chinese AI labs including Z.ai, and regularly holds developer seminars, open-source AI symposiums and university research meetups.
