- Chinese tech giants are racing to catch up with U.S. companies such as OpenAI in an AI arms race.
- According to local news reports, more than 40 AI models have been approved for public use by the government.
- China has strict controls on AI, and tech companies are required to “adhere to socialist values.”
China’s tech giants are racing to catch up in an AI arms race.
According to local media reports, the Chinese government has approved more than 40 AI models in the past six months since starting this process. Quoted by ReutersThat’s because the technology company is trying to compete with U.S. rivals like OpenAI.
This includes 14 new large-scale language models (LLMs) approved for public use in the last week alone. A senior executive at Chinese tech company Tencent previously spoke of the country’s new AI gold rush. As the “100 Model War” During September.
At the forefront of this “war” is search engine giant Baidu, also known as the “Google of China.”
The company has released a rival to ChatGPT named “Ernie Bot.” after a difficult start,Now, Over 100 million users and go Head-to-head with OpenAI’s GPT-4 model.
Baidu faces competition from Apple’s smartphone rival huawei and xiaomiwhich is also investing in its own AI model, has also received investment from TikTok owner Bytedance.
The latter AI push is already proving highly controversial. Bytedance built his unreleased AI voice converter. Researchers warn that it could be used for fraudand the company is Access to OpenAI tools has been suspended in December after The Verge reported that it was using them to build a competitor to ChatGPT.
Unlike their U.S. rivals, Chinese companies developing their own chatbots face political as well as technical challenges.
The Chinese government requires LLMs to meet a strict set of rules before being made available to the public, and regulations released last year require all chatbots to: “Adhering to the core values of socialism” and not to challenge national power.
As a result, many of the country’s most advanced AI models tend to avoid sensitive topics such as Taiwan’s status.
when Bloomberg asked some of China’s ChatGPT rivalsOthers, such as Baidu’s Ernie Bot and Tencent-backed Minimax, tried to change the subject when asked certain questions, or refused to answer what they thought were “illegal” questions.when When you ask if Taiwan is a country, all the bots sayIt claimed to be part of China.
Taiwan, an autonomous nation that China considers an independent province, responded: Announces funding for unique AI modelThe company, called Tide, hopes to be free from Chinese political influence.
After all, geopolitical tensions may be hampering China’s bid to become an AI superpower.
The United States has announced a series of restrictions on sales to China of advanced semiconductors essential for building and training AI, which experts warn will limit sales to China. Hindering the ability of Chinese companies to build advanced large-scale language models.