Chinese firms working on ChatGPT-style technology

April 10 (Reuters) – The global buzz around
Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT has spread to China, shoring
up stocks in artificial intelligence (AI) related firms and
prompting a flurry of local companies to announce rival
projects.

Like Microsoft and GoogleChinese tech giants such as Baidu
and Alibaba as well as smaller start-ups have
been working on AI projects for years.

Chatbots in China mostly focus on social interactions
whereas ChatGPT, which learns from vast amounts of data how to
answer prompts by users in a human-like manner, performs better
at more professional tasks, such as programming and essay
writing.

Here is a list of Chinese tech companies that have recently
made announcements on AI technology:

SENSETIME

Chinse AI firm SenseTime on April 10 unveiled a
slew of new AI powered products including a chatbot and image
generator based off its AI model SenseNova. The company did not
detail any plans for a product roll out.

BAIDU

Baidu Inc on March 16 unveiled its
much-anticipated AI-powered chatbot known as Ernie Bot. It is
currently available to a limited number of users who apply for
access codes.

Tests conducted by Reuters show that the chatbot has a good
command of the Chinese language but avoids answering some
political questions

Baidu plans to use Ernie Bot to revolutionise its search
engine, by far the most dominant in China, as well as use it to
increase efficiency in cloud, smart cars and household
appliances, among other mainstream businesses.

During an event on March 27 for companies that are testing
an industry-focused version of the chatbot, Baidu shared
pre-recorded videos of Ernie summarising financial statements
and producing powerpoint presentations.

ALI BABA

Alibaba Group said on Feb. 8 that it was
conducting internal testing for a ChatGPT-style tool. On April
7, Chinese media reported that Alibaba was seeking companies to
test its Tongyi Qianwen AI chatbot. A formal launch is expected
at an Alibaba Cloud event on April 11.

TENCENT

Tencent Holdings has set up a development team to
work on a ChatGPT-like chatbot to be called “HunyuanAide”, two
people familiar with the matter told Reuters in February. Asked
for comment, Tencent reiterated a Feb.9 statement that it is
conducting research on ChatGPT-tool technology.

FUDAN UNIVERSITY TEAM

A team from China’s Fudan University launched a ChatGPT-like
chatbot they called MOSS on Feb. 20. The platform, however,
crashed hours after its launch due a surge in traffic and the
team apologised, saying it was a very immature model that had a
long way to go before reaching the level of ChatGPT.

JD.COM

E-commerce company JD.Com said on Feb. 10 it plans
to launch a product similar to ChatGPT that it said would be
called ChatJD and will be aimed at serving other businesses.

CHINA TELECOM

China Telecom Corp is developing an industrial
version of ChatGPT for telecommunications, which will use AI in
some customer service functions, local Chinese media reported on
Feb. 18.

NETEASE

Gaming firm NetEase plans to deploy large
language models technology to serve its education business, a
source familiar with the company told Reuters on Feb. 8.

360 SECURITY TECHNOLOGY INC

360 Security Technology Inc said on Feb. 8 it
possessed language model technology but that it could not give a
clear indication on when it would launch any related products.

KUAISHOU TECHNOLOGY

Short video app Kuaishou Technology is conducting
research on large language models, which it will use to improve
its products such as AI customer service, the government-backed
the Paper reported on Feb. 9.

INSPUR ELECTRONIC INFORMATION INDUSTRY

Inspur Electronic Information Industry said on
its investors relation website that it has long invested in
AI-Generated Content (AIGC) from arithmetic, algorithms to the
application of the technology.

KUNLUN TECH

Beijing based-mobile games firm Kunlun Tech said it planned
to launch a Chinese version of ChatGPT this year whose code will
be open source, the company said on its WeChat account on
Thursday.

The company said in a separate statement that on Wednesday
it will embed ChatGPT into its Norway-based web browser Opera.

(Reporting by Albee Zhang and Brenda Goh, additional reporting
by David Kirton and Laura Lin; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree
and Kim Coghill)