What’s new: The Beijing municipal government has pledged to support local tech giants in developing products that can match ChatGPT, according to a white paper published Monday on the city’s artificial intelligence (AI) development.
Leading tech firms will be supported with developing “an open-source framework and an application ecology of a large model,” the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology said.
The paper also talked up the city’s leading role in China’s AI research, saying 40,000 AI experts, or 60% of the country’s total, are based within the capital.
The context: With its ability to answer questions articulately and compose texts across a variety of knowledge domains, U.S. firm OpenAI’s ChatGPT has put a spotlight on the potential of so-called “generative AI,” spurring Chinese tech giants to announce their intentions to unveil competing products soon.
Last week, Baidu Inc. said ERNIE bot was undergoing final tests before its planned public debut in March.
Earlier this month, Chinese startup YuanYu AI unveiled ChatYuan, though it suspended the Chinese-language chatbot just hours later without explanation. Some industry insiders said regulators may conduct security reviews on Chinese ChatGPT-styled products before they are put into public use.
Related: Baidu Talks Up ERNIE as China’s Answer to ChatGPT
Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com) and editor Bertrand Teo (bertrandteo@caixin.com)
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