April 11 (Reuters) - The global buzz around Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT has spread to China, shoring up stocks in artificial intelligence (AI) related firms and prompting a flurry of local companies to announce rival projects.
Here is a list of Chinese tech companies that have recently made announcements on AI technology:
ALIBABA
E-commerce giant Alibaba Group on April 11 showed off its AI large language model called Tongyi Qianwen that it said would be integrated into all of the company's apps in the near future.
Tongyi Qianwen will initially be integrated into DingTalk, Alibaba's workplace messaging app and Tmall Genie, Alibaba's voice assistant.
It began registrations for Tongyi Qianwen on April 7.
SENSETIME
Chinese AI firm SenseTime on April 10 unveiled a slew of new AI powered products including a chatbot and image generator based off its AI model SenseNova. The company did not detail any plans for a product roll out.
BAIDU
Baidu Inc on March 16 unveiled its much-anticipated AI-powered chatbot known as Ernie Bot. It is currently available to a limited number of users who apply for access codes.
Tests conducted by Reuters show that the chatbot has a good command of the Chinese language but avoids answering some political questions.
Baidu plans to use Ernie Bot to revolutionise its search engine, by far the most dominant in China, as well as use it to increase efficiency in its cloud, smart cars and household appliances businesses.
TENCENT
Tencent Holdings has set up a development team to work on a ChatGPT-like chatbot to be called "HunyuanAide", two people familiar with the matter told Reuters in February. Asked for comment, Tencent reiterated a Feb.9 statement that it is conducting research on ChatGPT-tool technology.
FUDAN UNIVERSITY TEAM
A team from China's Fudan University launched a ChatGPT-like chatbot they called MOSS on Feb. 20. The platform, however, crashed hours after its launch due a surge in traffic and the team apologised, saying it was a very immature model that had a long way to go before reaching the level of ChatGPT.
JD.COM
E-commerce company JD.Com said on Feb. 10 it plans to launch a product similar to ChatGPT that it said would be called ChatJD and will be aimed at serving other businesses.
CHINA TELECOM
China Telecom Corp is developing an industrial version of ChatGPT for telecommunications, which will use AI in some customer service functions, local Chinese media reported on Feb. 18.
NETEASE
Gaming firm NetEase plans to deploy large language models technology to serve its education business, a source familiar with the company told Reuters on Feb. 8.
360 SECURITY TECHNOLOGY INC
360 Security Technology Inc said on Feb. 8 it possessed language model technology but that it could not give a clear indication on when it would launch any related products.
KUAISHOU TECHNOLOGY
Short video app Kuaishou Technology is conducting research on large language models, which it will use to improve its products such as AI customer service, the government-backed the Paper reported on Feb. 9.
INSPUR ELECTRONIC INFORMATION INDUSTRY
Inspur Electronic Information Industry said on its investors relation website that it has long invested in AI-Generated Content technology.
KUNLUN TECH
Beijing based-mobile games firm Kunlun Tech said this week it would be holding an event on April 17 that would allow the public to test its ChatGPT-like product.
The company has also said it will embed ChatGPT into its Norway-based web browser Opera.
(Reporting by Albee Zhang and Brenda Goh, additional reporting by David Kirton, Laura Lin and Josh Ye; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree, Kim Coghill and Edwina Gibbs)
