# Latent Space podcast interviews swyx on AI Engineering and China's builder community

> Original title: ⚡ Behind Latent Space: from AI Substack to the first @aiDotEngineer in China 🇨🇳

- Source: Latent.Space
- Published: 2026-11-04T10:49:00.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/xu28brl6zlavixpuvqtd6gyrv
- Original: https://x.com/latentspacepod/status/2117932116021588031

## Summary

Latent Space's host swyx is interviewed by Ninggao88 of Linkloud about how the Latent Space newsletter started and why "AI Engineering" needed a name. The episode also covers the Kill My SaaS contest, where agents passed entry checks but choosing useful software required judgment, and the AI builder community in China.

## Post

⚡ Behind Latent Space: from AI Substack to the first @aiDotEngineer in China 🇨🇳

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmDLDy3ZSNE

This time @Ninggao88 of Linkloud turns the mic around: asking @swyx how LS started, why “AI Engineering" needed a name, and what’s different about the builder community in China.

We also get into Kill My SaaS: agents could pass the entry checks, but choosing software we’d actually use took judgment about the organizer’s workflow. That gap between generating software and making a good product runs through the conversation, from conference tools to Legora and Thinking Machines.

A special one for longtime listeners, with the original essays, demos and Chinese community posts on screen.

Chapters on YouTube:
0:00 AIEi Shanghai
2:31 Cold open
3:28 The conversation with Galen
8:01 Learn in Public
10:54 How Latent Space started
13:05 The idea for AI Engineer
25:10 The conference as a dataset
29:57 Kill My SaaS
39:31 What the contest judge measured
46:45 Jev and System One models
52:49 Writing and founder stories
1:02:13 Legora and product taste
1:03:29 OpenClaw adoption in China
1:07:35 Thinking Machines and interaction models
1:10:02 Reading and listening recommendations