What have I gained from the AI bar that provides free tokens?

"My token has matured to the point where you don't have to cry looking at me"

Anyone who has worked and lived in Beijing has more or less heard of the reputation of Zhongguancun Venture Street. This roughly 200-meter-long "street" located on the south side of Peking University has never lacked trendsetters in the technology field. More than a decade ago, this place was the base of Garage Cafe and JD Smart Milk Tea Shop, but now, there is an AI bar on the street that provides unlimited free tokens - AGI Bar.

"Home-brewed tokens, free unlimited drinks, for dine-in only."

The screen inside the bar shows how to use the free tokens

I came to AGI Bar on a weekday evening after rain, the shop was rather quiet with only one clerk on duty - it seems that this place does not really "welcome" customers who are not interested in AI. I ordered a 9.9-yuan "AGI Foam" and sat down, the foam tasted pretty smooth on the palate.

The wine list of AGI Bar

It is literally just a cup of foam

Judging from the wine list, this is a bar that loves playing AI memes. No matter it is the "Catch Steadily" apple juice, the "Arrange Immediately" rice lager, or the "No Detours" fruit puree, they all feel like drinking the bodily fluid of Doubao. Most of the drinks in the shop are fresh, sweet and sour in taste. No wonder, AI practitioners probably are not suitable for getting too drunk, let alone needing to taste the bitterness that AI brings to the world.

The bar is not big, but it can hold countless ideas. There are eight or nine tables in the shop, which are empty tonight, but will be full during events, becoming a social venue for people in the AI circle. Scan the AGI Bar mini-program code in the shop, and you can see the past events held here.

AGI Bar has one store in Beijing, and a new one opened in Shanghai in June. There are 14 days of event schedules in total throughout July. In addition to Beijing and Shanghai, there are also gatherings held in Shenzhen and Hangzhou under the name of "off-site delivery".

There are frequent events in the store with rich topics. Source from AGI Bar mini-program

The owner of the bar is the operator of the technology self-media "Cyber Zen Heart", whose official account profile says "deliver AI news quickly from an industrial perspective and as a practitioner", and has enabled AI private message reply. Judging from the content and frequency of his updates, he should be a senior practitioner in the industry. This also explains why there were flowers sent by teams from ByteDance, Kimi, ZhenFund and other teams at the door when the new AGI Bar opened.

Source from Xiaohongshu @Little T is starting a business

This wall is an important reference if you want to know who is active in the AI circle

The Chinese name of AGI Bar is "Knowledge Distillation", which is not only a technical term in the AI field, but also implies the process of people exchanging ideas in the bar. For the AI industry that highly relies on online services, such offline space is indeed necessary. To enter the palace of AI, you'd better visit the living room of AI first. After all, no matter how superb your skills are, you still need socializing.

Of course, qualified believers will come to the church on Sunday, and people like me who come on Thursday are just sightseers. I didn't catch the events here, nor did I meet any industry bigwigs, only a sophomore interning at Microsoft also came here attracted by reputation. He met no one else today except me, but I believe he will be a regular here in the future.

I decided to configure my API interface here. Although I don't really need it, it's better to have it than not. I asked the clerk, he said he couldn't do it, but the boss could; but the boss was not here, so I had to ask the young man I just met for help.

The young man readily started helping me tinker with the computer. He was very enthusiastic, almost answering every question, and his answers were full of jargon that I couldn't understand with my ability. I half-understood but pretended to understand, first to not hurt his feelings, and second he held the view that "people who don't know what to do with AI in the future will be eliminated" - it's great to hold this view, which proves that he has great confidence in his industry. I don't, but I don't want the future to come tonight.

After a while, the young man left for something urgent. In the end, I still didn't know if I had an API interface.

"At AGI Bar, the relationship between humans and AI is like that between brewers and yeast - not replacement, but symbiosis." - This sentence is not written by me, but the conclusion drawn by the reporter from Haidian District Integrated Media Center after visiting AGI Bar.

Special report about the bar

In my opinion, this space is not a place for entertainment to get drunk, but an experimental field for colliding inspirations; the business of the shop is not supported by the profit of drinks, but by connecting people and computing power, allowing every idea to be implemented quickly to precipitate value. Just like that cup of "AGI Foam", it is not a nihilistic carnival, but a pre-pouring for the future - the foam will dissipate, but the brewed wine will eventually leave a sweet aftertaste.

I remembered in the conversation with the young man, he specially praised the writing ability of Fable 5 - and I, whose account was banned in May, did not use Claude, but DeepSeek-V4-Pro. This is not compromise, but flexible employment. It's not that I don't like symbiosis with AI, but after having AI, I hate using "not...but..." and dashes very much, and start using corner quotes - this is not everyone's preference, but my personal quirk.

I am not indulging in using AI to write - but in this tavern with extremely positive belief in AI, using AI to produce as much as I can is the most correct thing to do here and now. But later my editor said that she has an AI generation recognition system in her brain, just like the Oriental Pearl Tower recognizes Mixue Bingcheng, all meme-playing or serious AI writing will be sniped by her. The Oriental Pearl Tower uses red laser rays, while her system uses black strikethrough.

Source from the Internet

Unconsciously, there were only me and the clerk left in the shop, and it seemed that there was no need to stay any longer. According to Baidu Baike, the shop plans to introduce robot dog wine delivery, AI bartending machine and other equipment in the future. I sincerely hope that this clerk can still work here then, or find another job he likes. But I didn't say these wishes to him in person, just left quietly.

In short, token has become an infrastructure provided by the venue, which is worthy of the industry's attention.

The lobster at the corner of the bar

The night of Zhongguancun Venture Street is getting dark. There are large pink iron buckets printed with "AI buddy" and "vibe coding". Under the sign of "Silicon Star Person", an astronaut in spacesuit points to the 8-bit sign printed with "Carbon Traitor". There is the blue "Acoustic Future Museum", and the blue "Smarter AI Better Life".

The Yanjiiu that I used to love going to has long disappeared, and I can't tell which shop it used to occupy. The coffee shop with raised sockets on the floor is still open, I once kicked my toenail broken inside, went to the south end of the street to eat the pulled noodles of Western Mahua with bleeding foot, and that building has also been renovated.

On this advanced street, the license plate number of the security booth is still entered by hand

Relying on my almost rotten memory, I successfully found the toilet on the street - together with China Bookstore, it has become a kind of almost permanent existence here, with an unchanged smell.

Let's go all the way north and leave this street that makes people have no desire to express! If successful innovations are destined to live longer than unsuccessful ones, it's better to wait until everything gets a little older and come back to see.

Go under the viaduct at Haidian Bridge, pass the Resource Hotel, and you will reach the former stall spot of Aunt Goose Leg. Except for KFC, 7-Eleven and Xiaodiaolitang, all the stores in Changchunyuan Food Street have taken on a new look. The enclosure on Haidian Gymnasium is already old, so you can no longer sit on the steps and drink with classmates. NOVA was the stronghold of the pre-AI era, and I hope alien neighbors can dig out its fossils in another 100 million years. Face recognition has been applied for many years, but except for alumni returning home in glory, no one wants to go through that trouble.

NOVA site

Crossing the doctoral dormitory, the atmosphere on Summer Palace Road began to become gloomy. The street lights were dim and there