In November, a year after ChatGPT’s release, a relatively unknown Chinese start-up leaped to the top of a leaderboard that judged the abilities of open-source artificial intelligence systems. The Chinese firm, 01.AI, was only eight months old but had deep-pocketed backers and a $1 billion valuation. It was founded by a well-known investor and technologist, Kai-Fu Lee. In interviews, Mr. Lee presented his A.I. system as an alternative to options like Meta’s generative A.I. model, called LLaMA. Some of the technology in 01.AI’s system actually came from LLaMA, but Mr. Lee’s start-up then built on Meta’s technology, training its system to make it more powerful.
This situation reflects a reality that many in China are openly admitting. Even as the country races to build generative A.I., Chinese companies are relying almost entirely on underlying systems from the United States. China now lags the United States in generative A.I. by at least a year and may be falling further behind. This has set the stage for a new phase in the cutthroat technological competition between the two nations, likened to a cold war.
Leading A.I. industry insiders have noted that Chinese companies are under tremendous pressure to keep abreast of U.S. innovations. Chinese companies often use fine-tuned versions of Western A.I. models and are two to three years behind the United States in generative A.I. developments. This battle for A.I. superiority has global implications and raises questions wrapped up in national security and geopolitics.
OpenAI released ChatGPT at a time when many Chinese firms were hampered by governmental regulations and censorship rules, leading to limitations on A.I. research and development. The requirement of quick turnarounds from A.I. investments in China has diverted money from more ambitious goals focused on fundamental research. Chinese companies have faced major obstacles and setbacks in their quest to catch up in the generative A.I. race.
Despite challenges in generative A.I., there are bright spots for China, particularly in fields like computer vision and autonomous vehicles. China is also pushing for breakthroughs in video generation. However, the reliance on foundational A.I. models from the US and the limitations set by the Chinese government present significant challenges for Chinese companies.