After receiving government approval, four Chinese technology companies introduced their artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for public use on August 30.
Baidu, Baichuan Intelligent Technology, SenseTime, and Zhipu AI launched their chatbots less than two weeks after the government’s official AI legislation was enacted on August 15. Government sanction is required before the launch of AI-based consumer products.
To receive said approval, businesses must submit security evaluations and other evidence of compliance with established standards. There are twenty-four guidelines, including mandatory labels for artificially created content and holding service providers accountable for all content created on their platform.
According to local Chinese media reports, eleven additional companies, including TikTok ByteDance and Tencent Holdings owners, have received government sanctions for AI products.
Baidu compared its new chatbot, Ernie Bot, to Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT application.
Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, reportedly stated in a local media report that by making ERNIE Bot available to hundreds of millions of internet users:
“Baidu will collect massive valuable real-world human feedback.”
China cannot access OpenAI’s chatbot because it is geo-blocked in the country. According to reports, the government compelled local social media platforms, such as WeChat and Weibo, to restrict access to the forum.
Baidu announced on social media that less than 12 hours after ChatGPT’s release, the app had risen to the top of the Apple store’s free app rankings in China despite the app’s lack of public availability.
Before the establishment of government regulations, companies could only conduct limited public evaluations of their AI products. Under the new rules, companies have expanded their testing to include more features.
Alibaba, a Chinese tech and e-commerce giant, published two open-source AI models to compete with Meta’s Llama 2 on August 3.
Its two large language models (LLMs), Qwen-7B and Qwen-7B-Chat, each have 7 billion parameters and are said to be scaled-down versions of the April-released Tongyi Qiawen.
Although not chatbots like Ernie or ChatGPT, these developments demonstrate China’s intent to compete with U.S. advances in artificial intelligence.
