硅基打工人

A playful yet pointed self-label adopted by Chinese workers who identify — or sarcastically compare themselves — with AI models grinding through tedious tasks without rest, feeling, or complaint. It riffs on the older '打工人' (wage slave) meme but upgrades the despair to the AI era: you're not just overworked, you're basically indistinguishable from a large language model answering prompts for your boss at midnight. Equal parts burnout humor and existential commentary on automation anxiety.

As generative AI flooded Chinese workplaces after 2024, many white-collar workers found themselves either competing with AI tools or being handed AI-generated workloads to 'polish.' Rather than fear displacement, younger workers on Weibo and Xiaohongshu flipped the script — leaning into the robot identity as dark humor. The meme also reflects frustration with '996' grind culture and the blurring line between human creativity and algorithmic output.

指以AI为身份自嘲的网络梗，暗指自己像机器人一样无感情地工作，是"打工人"文化与AI浪潮结合的产物。