China approves 40 AI models for public in six months
What's the story
In the past six months, China has approved over 40 artificial intelligence (AI) models for public use, following the implementation of regulatory approval for AI development.
Xiaomi Corp, 4Paradigm, and 01.AI are among the companies that received the most recent approvals.
This comes after Beijing began requiring tech firms to obtain regulatory approval before making their large language models (LLMs) available to the public in August last year.
Rise of AI
ChatGPT's rise sparked surge in China's AI development
The first set of approvals was granted to major companies like Baidu, Alibaba, and ByteDance.
Following this, two more rounds of approvals took place in November and December, with an additional batch approved this month.
The surge in AI development among Chinese companies was sparked by the global attention garnered by OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022.
China vs US
AI race: China closing in on US with 40% LLMs
At the time, China had 130 LLMs, making up 40% of the worldwide total and trailing just behind the US's 50% share, according to brokerage firm CLSA.
Baidu's Ernie Bot, a chatbot similar to ChatGPT, has already attracted over 100 million users, as stated by the company's CTO in December.
Despite sanctions put in place by the US, Beijing is actively investing in AI.
China's imports of chipmaking machines saw a 14% increase in 2023, reaching a staggering $40 billion.