The global community is concerned about Chinese investors rushing to get into generative AI with a focus on large language models. More Than 30 Chinese companies have announced their own large language model projects. They include tech giants Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu and Huawei, With the entry of Tiktok owner Bytedance the competition has intensified.
ByteDance Ltd. is testing an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot among employees to create a local version of ChatGPT. This came a week after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Rolled out its ChatGPT-style technology. Alibaba wants to take a lead in China’s artificial intelligence race.
ChatGPT, which has become sparked huge interest in the area of generative AI, across the globe. Developed by U.S. firm OpenAI, AI chatbot can answer questions when prompted by a user. Google has come up wth its own GPT, Bard to complete open ai Chat GPT. OpenAI made it accessible to all for the first time with the launch of ChatGPT in November. Soon after, big tech was scrambling to incorporate similar technology into its products.
Alibaba has large language model called TongyiQianwen in which a system has been trained on huge amounts of data in order to recognize and generate content.
Alibaba’s cloud computing division, which is leading the AI charge for the company, said that TongyiQianwen will be integrated into a digital assistant called Tingwu. TongyiTingwu, the AI-powered assistant, will be able to analyze multimedia content and generate a text summary from video and audio files, according to Alibaba.
As far as China is concerned, it has been actively investing in AI research and development. It has, and they have made significant advancements in various areas, including natural language processing and machine learning. It’s not uncommon for countries to pursue their own AI initiatives to reduce dependency on foreign technology and gain a competitive edge.
According to latest news reports, nearly 80 large language models( LLMs) have been launched in China by the tech firms over the past three years as they doubled down on efforts to develop artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. The development of LLMs, trained using deep learning techniques on massive amounts of text data, entered an “accelerated” phase in 2020, as per the report authored by research institutes run by the country’s Ministry of Science and Technology.
In 2020, Chinese organisations had released 2 LLMs, compared with 11 in the United States, but in 2021 there was a total of 30 LLMs released in each country, said the report recently published . After OpenAI released ChatGPT, Chinese tech giants, from
Alibaba (9988.HK) to surveillance firm Sensetime (0020.HK) and search engine giant Baidu (9888.HK), have launched their own versions of chatbots powered by generative AI and LLMs.
Experts on AI said that If China were to develop a local version of GPT, it would tailor to its own language, culture, and specific needs. This approach could potentially provide advantages in terms of language understanding and context for Chinese users.
Experts n US and Western countries are worried about China’s focus on LLM in generative AI for following reasons:
National security: LLMs can be used to generate fake news and propaganda, which could be used to undermine political stability or interfere with elections. For example, in 2020, a Chinese state-backed media outlet used a deepfake to create a video of former US President Barack Obama criticizing the current US administration.
Economic interest: LLMs can be used to automate tasks that are currently done by humans, which could lead to job losses in the West. For example, LLMs can be used to write code, translate languages, and generate creative content.
Technological competition: China is a major player in the global technology industry, and its focus on LLM could give it an edge in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous vehicles. This could lead to China becoming a more dominant player in the global economy.
In response to these concerns, the US and Western governments have taken steps to regulate LLMs and other forms of artificial intelligence. For example, the US government has banned the use of deepfakes by government agencies, and the European Union has proposed regulations that would require companies to disclose how they use AI.
Chinese experts on ai concede that China’s focus on LLM in generative AI is part of a broader effort by the Chinese government to become a leader in artificial intelligence.
The US and Western countries are worried about China’s AI ambitions because they believe that China could use AI to gain a strategic advantage over them.
However, US and Western countries are taking steps to regulate AI in order to protect themselves from potential threats.
Source: The Singapore Post