BEIJING – About a year ago, a group of China-based Tencent employees came together because of a common aspiration to enable everyone – even those without knowledge of computer programming – to create their own role-playing games.
On the back of a global boom in generative AI, enterprises and developers in China have surged ahead in finding new and practical ways to apply the technology. These include tools for writing financial reports, grading high school essays and generating presentation slides. The internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, disclosed on April 2 that 117 generative AI models have been approved for public use.
This was as he was giving a live demonstration of creating an app for organising tours to Singapore, including buying tickets for attractions and booking hotels.Baidu, known more for its search engine, has in recent years doubled down on its early investments in AI, with its Ernie Bot 4.0, unveiled in October 2023, seen as among the top Chinese competitors to ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
China also has a vast population that enables AI applications to be developed, tested and deployed at scale, allowing for rapid iteration and innovation.On the flip side, the primary challenge in China’s AI sector could be constraints on the supply of AI chips, potentially limiting the speed of AI innovation and development, said Ms Pau.
“Large models, if not useful, could have gone the way of many other inventions that don’t have any impact, and, in fact, most of the innovations today are driven by real or perceived commercial needs and less by researchers in academia, as typically happens when a tech becomes more widely adopted,” she said.