A new rival to OpenAI’s Chat GPT has hit the scene on Monday, this time from Alibaba-backed SenseTime in China.
SenseTime unveiled the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot SenseChat, which wrote an email and a children’s story as part of a live demonstration. SenseChat is based on the company's big AI model SenseNova, CEO Xu Li said.
"We have been focusing on developing our big models,” SenseTime cofounder Wang Xiaogang said. “In addition to our powerful AI infrastructure ... SenseTime has also developed the ability to deploy big models across our product line.”
The company did not offer details about a planned product rollout, but that is also made more complicated by US sanctions on the company.
In 2019, the US put SenseTime on a trade blacklist after accusing it of developing facial recognition programs that Chinese officials used to surveil ethnic Uyghurs in its Xinjiang region.
SenseTime said at the time that it strongly opposed the US ban and would work with relevant authorities to resolve the situation.
The development of AI technology has become something of an arms race since the launch of ChatGPT late last year by US-based OpenAI.
Shares in SenseTime surged last week prior to the demonstration event. The Hong Kong market was closed Monday due to a holiday.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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