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☆ China's AI models lag their U.S. counterparts by 6 to 9 months, says former head of Google China
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-11 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Kai-Fu Lee, chairman and chief executive officer of Sinovation Ventures, speaks during the HICOOL Global Entrepreneur Summit on September 11, 2021 in Beijing, China. BEIJING — Chinese artificial intelligence models may be at least half a year behind those developed in the U.S., but Chinese AI apps will likely take off much faster, said Kai-Fu Lee, former head of Google China. The top Chinese companies' LLMs are about six to nine months behind their U.S. counterparts, while less advanced Chinese models may lag the U.S. by about 15 months, Lee said. Lee, author of "AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order,“ is a widely followed commentator on AI, and is the founder of startup 01.AI as well as venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures. "Apps, I would predict, by early next year will proliferate in China much faster than in the U.S.," Lee said, noting that the cost of training a good AI model has fallen significantly.

Persons: Kai, Fu Lee, Lee Organizations: Sinovation Ventures, Summit, Google, Equity Forum China Locations: Beijing, China, BEIJING, U.S, Google China, Silicon Valley

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. system as an alternative to options like Meta’s generative A.I. Mr. Lee’s start-up then built on Meta’s technology, training its system with new data to make it more powerful. 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.

Persons: Kai, Fu Lee, Lee, Lee’s Locations: China, United States

☆ Don't worry — the machines won't be as smart as humans for a long time, because they've still got a lot to learn
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-20 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Much of today's most popular AI models, such as OpenAI's GPT-4, are trained on what's publicly available on the internet. It's worth noting that AI models exist today that are pretty effective at generating images, but these are text-to-image models, like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. Koller also sees issues with today's LLMs. This isn't the first time doubts have been raised about the capacity of today's AI models. Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunchThis is not to say today's LLMs are useless.

Persons: —, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Bill Gates, Daphne Koller, MacArthur, Koller, Neilson Barnard, chatbots, Yann LeCun, –, today's LLMs, LLMs, that's, Kai, Fu Lee, Steve Jennings Organizations: Economic, Service, Big Tech titans, Google, Microsoft, Getty, Meta Locations: Davos, Switzerland, today's, silico

☆ Artificial Intelligence Needs Open-Source Models to Reach Its Potential
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Kai-Fu Lee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: Getty Images/iStockphotoJohannes Gutenberg ’s printing press revolutionized life in the 15th century, making it possible for ideas to travel around the world at previously unimaginable speeds and creating huge gains for mankind. Gutenberg tried to keep his technique a secret, but a disgruntled former investor, Johann Fust , soon replicated his device. Fust launched his own press and poached Gutenberg’s top techie, Peter Schoeffer . Imagine if the printing press had been kept secret and controlled by one company, or confined within one nation. It’s an imperfect analogy, but it offers a useful way to frame the current debate around artificial intelligence.

Persons: Johannes Gutenberg ’, Gutenberg, Johann Fust, Fust, Peter Schoeffer

☆ Tencent says it stockpiled Nvidia AI chips but seeks Chinese replacements
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Hong Kong CNN —Tencent rushed to build up “one of the largest inventories of AI chips in China” before US export restrictions took hold, an executive said Wednesday. It is one of the chipmaker’s advanced AI chips designed for use in data centers, the physical facilities used to store troves of electronic information. In late October, Nvidia disclosed that the just-announced restrictions had come into effect “immediately,” weeks earlier than scheduled. “Going forward, we will have to figure out ways to make … the usage of our AI chips more efficient,” namely by working to retain most of the company’s high-performance chips for training the model, he added. The bot was developed specifically for corporate users, allowing them to catch up on meetings by viewing automated summaries or put together documents more efficiently, Lau told analysts.

Persons: Hong Kong CNN — Tencent, Martin Lau, ”, ” Lau, Tencent, “, Biden, Kai, Fu Lee, Lau Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Nvidia, Bloomberg, Sinovation Ventures, Huawei, Center for Strategic, International Studies, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation Locations: China, Hong Kong, China ”, United States, Beijing, Washington, Shenzhen

☆ It's never been this easy to build a $1 billion AI company
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

You don't have to be Sam Altman to build a $1 billion AI company. Kai-Fu Lee's new startup and Mistral AI have shown that AI companies can scale by going open source. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe opportunity to build a $1 billion AI business has never seemed this straightforward for entrepreneurs aspiring to be the next Sam Altman. In response, Lee credited Hugging Face as the reason his company was able to take its AI mode public "rapidly, credibly, and impactfully." Developers wanting to build AI businesses at scale will want open source to thrive.

Persons: Sam Altman, Kai, Fu, OpenAI's, —, he's, Fu Lee, It's, Lee, Abu, Yann LeCun Organizations: Mistral, Service, Microsoft, Bloomberg Locations: Paris, OpenAI

☆ China's AI 'war of a hundred models' heads for a shakeout
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Additionally, companies have also announced dozens of "industry-specific LLMs" that link to their core model. However, investors and analysts say that most were yet to find viable business models, were too similar to each other and were now grappling with surging costs. Several other big name entrepreneurs and tech executives are behind new Chinese AI startups, such as Google China's former chief Kai-Fu Lee and Yan Juejie, a former vice-president of SenseTime (0020.HK). Others said that China's largest tech companies Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu ultimately had the biggest headstart and deep pockets to succeed, given their large user bases and wide range of services. For instance, they could easily offer generative AI services as an additional plug-in to their cloud users.

Persons: Baidu's, Robin Li, Ernie Bot, Tingshu Wang, OpenAI's, Esme Pau, Pau, Yuan Hongwei, Meta, Baichuan, Wang Xiaochuan, China's, Wang, Yuan, Kai, Fu Lee, Yan Juejie, SenseTime, Tony Tung, Tung, Josh Ye, Brenda Goh, Sam Holmes Organizations: Baidu, REUTERS, HK, Huawei, Nvidia, China, Macquarie Group, Y, Baichuan Intelligence, Inc, Sogou, Google, Partners, Thomson Locations: Beijing, China, HONG KONG, Alibaba, United States, Washington, Shenzhen

☆ Chinese quants redouble AI bets amid ChatGPT frenzy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File PhotoSHANGHAI/SINGAPORE, June 5 (Reuters) - Chinese quant hedge fund managers are rushing to explore ChatGPT-style tools, embracing the emerging AI technology that has sparked a global frenzy since the release of the widely popular Microsoft-backed OpenAI chatbot. His hedge fund already uses ChatGPT to better understand a company's fundamentals and avoid value traps, project earnings power, and identify investment opportunities and risks. A ChatGPT-like tool boosts quants' ability to process text-related data, said Feng Ji, chairman of Baiont Capital. Feng's hedge fund, backed by former Google China chief and AI veteran Kai-Fu Lee, has invested heavily in hardware to enhance computing power required for model-training. Regulators are looking for ways to tackle the impact of generative AI technology.

Persons: Thomas White, Steve Chen, Feng Ji, ChatGPT, Feng, Kai, Fu Lee, Feng's, Larry Cao, Cao, it's, Samuel Shen, Tom Westbrook, Himani Sarkar Organizations: Microsoft, Baiont, Google China, Flyer, Zhishan Investment, Wall, Regulators, HK, Baidu, CFA Institute, Thomson Locations: SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, Shanghai, Beijing, Feng's Nanjing, China

MiniMax was founded in 2021 by some former employees of SenseTime (0020.HK), including Yan Junjie - a former vice president at the Chinese AI firm, two other people said. Wang Huiwen, co-founder of on-demand service giant Meituan (3690.HK), said he has founded a new AI company called Beijing Lightyear Technology with $50 million from investors. Google China's former chief, Kai-Fu Lee, has unveiled his new startup - Project AI 2.0. Wang Xiaochuan, founder of China's No.2 search engine Sogou, said in April that he had founded Baichuan Intelligence with a startup capital of $50 million. Its other early investors include China's Yunqi Partners and Future Capital, statements from the venture capital funds show.

Persons: MiniMax, Yan Junjie, Wang Huiwen, Kai, Fu Lee, Wang Xiaochuan, China's, MiHoYo, Charlie Chai, ERNIE Bot, Chai, Roxanne Liu, Josh Ye, Himani Sarkar Organizations: Microsoft, HK, Huawei, Baidu, Beijing Lightyear Technology, Google, Baichuan Intelligence, China's Yunqi Partners, Future, 86Research, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, HONG KONG, China, Beijing, miHoYo, Hong Kong

☆ A $162,500 per year Swiss boarding school — possibly the world's most expensive — says it's embracing AI tech like ChatGPT to help students learn
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Swiss boarding school's director told Insider it is embracing AI tech like ChatGPT and DALL-E.She says banning ChatGPT is "mass hysteria," and students need to be taught the ethics of AI. The Swiss boarding school, which says it is "possibly" the world's costliest, requires a non-refundable fee of over $1,000 just to apply. Another student used DALL·E to generate pictures in an essay about the role of women in the First World War. The AI didn't score more than a C."I would say that if you're getting C level answers from ChatGPT, you're asking the wrong question," Gademann adds. "Can you imagine a scenario where we're throwing millions and millions of dollars to find out if a student used a calculator in math homework in the '80s?"

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