A screen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China, on Friday, September 2, 2022.
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BEIJING — The business story of ChatGPT today is more about the unknown.
Major tech companies in the US and China this month rushed to announce that they were working on similar AI tools. Their announcements often mention Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, while also revealing some details about what they’re up to.
The AI-powered ChatGPT chatbot has taken the tech world by storm over the past few months with its ability to create everything from poems to business strategies in a single, human-like conversation.
However, analysts say that the technology is transformative, the same has been said of blockchain and the metaverse.
Competitive landscape
Here’s what companies — including those in China — are doing in this niche of AI:
US startup OpenAI races to beat rivals by launching ChatGPT in November according to the New York Times, citing sources. Public interfaces have skyrocketed in popularity for everything from homework help to strategy development.
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.
ChatGPT for enterprise software
Database software startup PingCap already has a ChatGPT-based product on the market. The company has offices in Beijing and San Mateo, California.
PingCap launched “Chat2Query” to customers outside of China in January using a publicly available application programming interface from OpenAI.
The product allows customers to analyze their company’s operational data in seconds – such as best-selling car models – without knowing a programming language, said Liu Song, vice president of PingCap. computer. He said Chat2Query is free for customers handling up to 5 gigabytes of data.
“We think the revolution may not be in AI search but in every business,” he said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. However, he notes that such data needs to be organized in a standardized way.
We think the revolution may not be in AI search but in every business
Liu Song
PingCap, vice president
BaiduChina’s search engine and technology giant, said Wednesday its AI chatbot project will be embedded in search first and open to the public in March.
The product is named “Ernie the robot” in English or “Wenxin Yiyan” in Chinese, the company previously said.
While little is known about the Ernie bot’s capabilities — and how they compare to ChatGPT — the Baidu-backed video streaming platform iQiyi announced plans to connect with bots for AI-generated search and content. Electric vehicle startup backed by Baidu Jidu — which has yet to start delivering vehicles — also said it plans to incorporate the Ernie bot.
alibaba It is expected to release quarterly earnings on Thursday evening. Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant said it is internally testing ChatGPT-style technology and does not provide a launch date. However, Alibaba said it has been researching related AI technology since 2017.
Chinese e-commerce competitor JD.com also no release date, but said it “ChatJD” will focus on retail and finance. It will assist with tasks such as creating product summaries on shopping sites and financial analysis, the company said.
Tencent, which operates popular Chinese messaging app WeChat, said in a statement that it continues to research natural language processing. That’s the area in artificial intelligence that ChatGPT relies on.
While ChatGPT this month has become a trendy topic in China, even for state media, Analysts note National data and censorship regulations can affect how similar technology develops in the country. Beijing has emphasized building its own technological capabilities.
Nikkei Asia on Wednesday reported, citing sources, that regulators had told Tencent and Ant Group, Alibaba’s affiliate. does not provide access to ChatGPT services on their platforms, either directly or through third parties.
The report does not specify which regulatory body. China’s cybersecurity regulator Tencent and Ant did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In terms of technical capabilities, however, the US is only months, not years, ahead of China in that AI research, a Microsoft executive told journalists this month. ChatGPT is not available in China, although Microsoft operates in the country.
The CEO said the state-backed Beijing Institute of Artificial Intelligence is one of three global leaders in artificial intelligence research, along with Google’s DeepMind and Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI. .
AI Creative Content
Kunlun technology hopes to release a Chinese version of open-source ChatGPT as early as the middle of this year, its president Han Fang told CNBC last week. Open source software is available to the public and allows anyone to view, change, or distribute the code.
The company generates most of its revenue outside of China, previously said its niche web browser Opera is planning to incorporate ChatGPT into its products, although it is unclear when or with what function.
Kunlun Tech is already active in the field of AI-generated content, such as music.
Fang said his plan for commercialization is to develop those AI tools first. The creators can then use these tools to create their own work and publish them on designated platforms for the public to see, then the company can sell ads, Mr. speak. He hopes to launch the platforms later this year.
transformative potential
Fang said he was directly inspired by the first version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology in 2020.
“We’re all talking about the metaverse, but who’s in it?” he speaks in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. “It just changed our news. It didn’t change our lives.”
By contrast, he said synthetic AI technology can provide immediate value because it works where users already produce and consume content. Creative AI can also reduce production costs, Fang said, allowing animators and speakers of minority languages to easily create their own content.
The impacts on jobs and industries are still significant.
Anton Korinek, a professor in the University of Virginia’s Department of Economics and Darden School of Business, says the emergence of AI like ChatGPT means that many “cognitive tasks” look easier to automate than manual work. as in factories – a surprise to many economists. .
“It is impressive, but also a little scary, that the power of these systems has grown steadily over the past few years,” he said, adding that he expects stronger AI technology in the year alone. now.
“It really implies that these models will have a revolutionary impact on our economy, on productivity, on the labor market, and ultimately on society at large.”
— Arjun Kharpal of CNBC and Lauren Feiner contributed to this report.
