07/09/2023 (China) - During an annual summit, Tencent, the Chinese tech giant, launched its AI model "Hunyuan" for business applications. This move followed Baidu's announcement of AI-powered applications due to more favorable regulations.
Tencent had internally tested its Hunyuan AI model, primarily in advertising and fintech. They also revealed plans to release an AI chatbot and integrate Hunyuan's capabilities into their existing products, such as video conferencing and social media.
Several Chinese companies, including Baidu, received approval to release AI-powered chatbots for public use. These chatbots conversed primarily in Chinese and could convert text into images and videos.
It's noteworthy that OpenAI's ChatGPT wasn't available in China. These AI chatbot releases coincided with new Chinese regulations for generative AI, effective from August 15. Tencent stressed the need for safeguards to ensure AI technologies met high-quality standards and prevented the spread of false information.
Chinese authorities clarified that these regulations wouldn't apply to AI technology still in development, which was a more relaxed stance compared to an earlier draft.
Chinese companies faced U.S. restrictions on acquiring advanced semiconductors required for AI model training. Tencent hoped for increased GPU compute supply in the coming months to accelerate technological progress.
Tencent was among many Chinese companies, from startups to industry giants like Huawei, announcing AI products this year. They believed in industry-specific AI training for value generation, citing applications in tourism, finance, public services, and customer support. Tencent advocated for open-source models, allowing customers to train their own models with their data, improving data protection.