China needs to problem the U.S. in AI — this is what Chinese language giants are doing with the tech

World consideration round generative synthetic intelligence has been targeted on large U.S. firms like OpenAI, Alphabet‘s Google and Meta.

However a few of China’s giants, from Alibaba to Tencent, have launched their very own AI fashions over the previous 18 months, trying to capitalize on the hype across the know-how.

China’s ambitions to develop into a world leader in AI provides one other layer to the nation’s know-how battle with the U.S. China has been seen as playing catchup to the U.S. however the race is heating up.

Generative AI contains functions like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has the power to generate textual content, pictures and even video primarily based on person prompts. These functions are powered by giant AI fashions that are skilled on enormous quantities of information, equivalent to Google’s Gemini.

Chinese language know-how agencys have needed to tread rigorously in releasing their know-how as Beijing has strict requirements for AI models and their makes use of.

CNBC runs by the large Chinese language AI fashions developed by the nation’s greatest tech corporations.

Baidu, one in every of China’s greatest web firms, was among the many first within the nation to launch generative AI functions. Its mannequin powers Ernie Bot, an AI chatbot designed to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT and which the Chinese language firm says has 300 million customers.

Earlier than the “Turbo” model of the mannequin, Baidu stated that its newest model — Ernie 4.0 — has capabilities on par with OpenAI’s GPT-4. The foundational mannequin can perceive and purpose, based on Baidu.

Like different firms, Baidu is promoting the power to make use of its AI mannequin through its cloud computing division.

Alibaba launched its set of foundational fashions, Tongyi Qianwen, final yr. Typically shortened to Qwen, Alibaba has developed numerous variations that may perform totally different duties. For instance, one mannequin is targeted on creating content material or fixing math issues. One other can perceive audio-based inputs and provides text-based outputs.

Some variations of its Qwen fashions are open-sourced, which means they are often brazenly downloaded, with some limitations, and utilized by builders.

Alibaba stated in Might its Qwen fashions have been deployed by over 90,000 enterprise customers.

Final yr, Tencent launched its own foundational model called Hunyuan.

Corporations can entry Hunyuan’s capabilities through Tencent’s cloud computing enterprise. Tencent has stated Hunyuan has sturdy Chinese language language processing talents and “superior” logical reasoning. The mannequin can assist features together with picture creation and textual content recognition.

Tencent has positioned the mannequin as one which can be utilized by firms in industries from gaming to social media and e-commerce.

Tencent runs China’s biggest messaging app, WeChat. The corporate this yr launched an AI chatbot primarily based on its Hunyuan mannequin. The AI assistant, often called Yuanbao, can pull data and content material from WeChat, as Tencent appears to distinguish its providing from rivals.