China’s AI Development Soars with Proliferation of Large Models
Beijing, The Gulf Observer: China’s artificial intelligence (AI) landscape is witnessing a surge in large models, underpinned by algorithms, computing power, and big data, propelling the nation’s economic development. Official data reports that as of October 2023, 238 big models have been launched in China, with universities, institutes, and innovative enterprises actively participating in the AI large model ecosystem.
Large language models, offering functionalities like language understanding, logical reasoning, knowledge question and answer, and text generation, have gained significant traction. Leading AI company iFLYTEK introduced its AI-powered large language model “Spark Desk,” amassing over one million users within 14 hours of its launch. Similarly, Baidu’s Ernie Bot, a ChatGPT-like product, achieved a user base exceeding 100 million by December 28, 2023, marking a milestone as China’s first large model product providing paid services.
These large models, with hundreds of billions of scale parameters and complex structures, are demonstrating substantial application potential across various sectors of the real economy. In smart mining, drug research and development, meteorology, government affairs, finance, intelligent manufacturing, and railway management, China’s self-developed AI-driven large models are making a transformative impact.
In the manufacturing sector, robots equipped with large models enhance worker efficiency, while in transportation, large models optimize traffic flow and road conditions. The drug R&D sector benefits from expedited research processes and highly efficient, innovative, and personalized drug design through natural language processing, knowledge graphs, and molecular modeling.
The development of large models represents a key focus for future scientific endeavors, necessitating integration into various industries to serve the real economy effectively. The high entry barriers and challenges in large model research and development underscore the importance of their seamless application across industries for sustainable development.
In response to the demands for AI, cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai, recognized as the “first echelon” of China’s AI development, are actively increasing the supply of computing power. These cities have issued policies supporting the development of computing power infrastructure, contributing to the rapid growth of intelligent computing power, which accounted for 59 percent of the nation’s computing power in 2023, according to a white paper on China’s computing power development index.
