Chinese and U.S. AI Applications in Public Administration: Lessons and Implications for Ukraine

Aug 14, 2025

Guest

Karman Lucero

Guest

Dmytro Yefremov

Guest

Wang Guan

Wang Guan, Chairman of Learnable.ai, shares insights on China's innovative AI projects like the 'City Brain' that optimize urban services. Dmytro Yefremov discusses Ukraine's potential to leverage these technologies to enhance governance amid conflict. Karman Lucero addresses regulatory frameworks in the U.S. and China, highlighting the need for local adaptation in Ukraine. The trio examines the balance between technological advancement and geopolitical challenges, urging cautious yet open-minded approaches to AI integration in Ukraine's public administration.

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INSIGHT

AI Extends Far Beyond Chatbots

Governments deploy AI across many domains beyond chatbots, including traffic, energy, public safety, benefits processing, and infrastructure planning.
These deployments reveal both promise for efficiency and complexity around privacy, fairness, and inclusiveness.

ADVICE

Prepare Society Before Regulating AI

Build domestic capacity by translating wartime AI and security experience into civilian uses like crisis management and cybersecurity.
Prepare businesses, society, and state institutions before imposing strict AI regulations.

ANECDOTE

12345 Hotline Uses AI For Triage

China uses a single citizen hotline (12345) to route public service calls and now applies LLMs to triage and answer many queries.
AI distinguishes problem types, routes requests to departments, and answers simple questions, speeding responses and cutting costs.

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Artificial intelligence has been a frequent topic on Sinica in recent years — but usually through the lens of the two countries that have produced the leading models and companies: the United States and China. We’ve covered generative AI, national strategies, governance frameworks, and the geopolitical implications of AI leadership.

This webinar, broadcast on the morning of August 14, broadens that lens to explore how other countries — and especially Ukraine — are approaching AI in the public sector. Around the world, governments are experimenting with AI well beyond chatbots and text generation: China’s “City Brain” optimizes traffic, energy use, and public safety; U.S. agencies are streamlining services and automating benefits processing; and elsewhere, smart grids, predictive infrastructure planning, and AI-enabled e-governance are reshaping public administration. These projects reveal both the promise and the complexity of bringing AI into government — along with valid concerns over privacy, fairness, and inclusiveness.

We’ll look at what lessons Ukraine might draw from U.S. and Chinese experiences, the opportunities and challenges of adapting these practices, and the strategic risks of sourcing AI solutions from different providers — especially in the context of Ukraine’s eventual postwar reconstruction.

Joining us are three distinguished guests:

Dmytro Yefremov, Board Member of the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists, with deep expertise in China’s political and technological strategies and Ukraine’s policy landscape.
Wang Guan, Chairman of Learnable.ai in China, bringing extensive experience in AI applications for public administration and education.
Karman Lucero, Associate Research Scholar and Senior Fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, whose work focuses on Chinese law, governance, and the regulation of emerging technologies.

Thanks to the Ukrainian Platform for Contemporary China, the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists, and the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill for organizing and sponsoring today’s event. Special thanks to Vita Golod for putting together the panel and inviting me to moderate.

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