The exploding popularity of ChatGPT, the free-to-access artificial intelligence (AI) software, has inspired the Chinese government and IT companies seeking new sources of growth to get fully behind Chat-GPT-like technology.
China's Ministry of Science and Technology signaled this week that the Asian nation saw the potential of ChatGPT-like technology and would be pushing for the integration of AI into the Chinese economy. Chen Jiachang, who heads the ministry's high-tech department, is a fan of ChatGPT’s mindboggling natural language processing capabilities.
“(This technology) has the potential to be applied in many industries and fields,” Jiachang, who heads the ministry's high-tech department, told a news briefing on Friday.
Significantly, Minister Wang Zhigang also told the same briefing that from an ethics standpoint, technologies like ChatGPT should “not be limited too much” so they can be developed effectively, though he cautioned that all technological achievements have “two sides.”
Microsoft-backed OpenAI bans users in China from creating accounts on its hit chatbot app, though the Wall Street Journal reported that many have found ways to circumvent the barrier through “virtual private networks or by buying accounts using e-commerce platforms for a few US dollars.”
According to the Journal, ChatGPT can produce answers in Chinese, and its “spectacular, surprising and sometimes wrong responses” have not only provided a good laugh but have become trending topics on Chinese social media.
Chinese rivals to ChatGPT
In the meantime, Chinese search engine giant Baidu Inc plans to launch in March a Chinese rival to ChatGPT called ErnieBot. Baidu CEO Robin Li Yanhong, a Chinese software engineer and billionaire internet entrepreneur, revealed on Wednesday that ErnieBot has been trained on billions of daily search engine requests and represents the “state of the art” when it comes to Chinese-language AI chatbots.
During a conference call with analysts, Baidu's Li revealed that the company's first step will be to integrate the company's ChatGPT-inspired Ernie Bot into its search service. Baidu will also use Ernie Bot to improve Baidu’s AI cloud, its driverless car system and its voice assistant Xiaodu.
Meanwhile, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) and social-media conglomerate Tencent Holdings (HKG:0700, OTC:TCEHY) are ahead of the curve. They have been investing heavily to advance their own equivalents to the artificial-intelligence chatbot. In 2019, Alibaba released one called AliceMind and another called M6 two years later. AliceMind powers AliMe, its customer-service chat feature.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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