HONG KONG: China has approved more than 40 artificial intelligence (AI) models for public use in the first six months since authorities began the government’s AI development, according to Chinese media.
Last week, regulators in China approved a total of 14 large language models (LLMs) for public access, as disclosed by the state-backed Securities Times. This approval marks the fourth batch granted by China, with notable recipients including Xiaomi Corp, 4Paradigm, and 01.AI.
Starting from August last year, Beijing mandated that tech firms seek approval from regulators before making their LLMs available to the public. This move reflects China’s strategy of advancing AI technology while maintaining oversight and control over its deployment.
The initial batch of AI models was approved by Beijing shortly after the adoption of the approval process in August. Companies such as Baidu, Alibaba, and ByteDance were among the first recipients. Subsequently, Chinese regulators issued two more rounds of approvals in November and December, followed by the latest batch this month. Although the government has not publicly disclosed the list of approved companies, the Securities Times reported that over 40 AI models have been given the green light.
Since the widespread popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, Chinese companies have been actively developing AI products. At that time, China possessed 130 LLMs, comprising 40% of the global total and trailing only the United States, which held a 50% share, as per brokerage CLSA.
One of China’s prominent ChatGPT-like chatbots, Baidu’s Ernie Bot, boasted over 100 million users, according to the company’s Chief Technology Officer in December.
