The media convergence of China’s mainstream media, which originated in the mid-1990s, has undergone nearly two decades of independent exploration and over a decade of top-down, state-led promotion and development since 2013. Nevertheless, it has yet to break free from systemic dilemmas related to identity, institutions, and the market structure of new media products. Mounting evidence indicates that with the advent of the AI era, the media convergence of mainstream media, which has entered a stage of systemic transformation, is facing new systemic predicaments while the old problems have not been resolved. To break free from these new dilemmas in the AI era, the solutions do not lie simply in the “technical” level—such as funding, technology, and talent. Instead, it is more crucial to explore solutions from the "philosophical" dimension, particularly at the root level of confidence and theory. On this basis, the mainstream media can provide ideological guidance and theoretical support for institutional reforms that address key constraints on the development of convergent media. Meanwhile, the mainstream media can leverage their “ought-to-be” positioning and potential advantages as leaders in mainstream values and providers of high-quality content, and fully utilize AI technology to build large language models tailored for mainstream media to develop media convergence at the “technical” level.