State-run China Telecom unveils own ChatGPT-like service, joining generative AI competition with Baidu and Alibaba
China Telecom, the state-owned telecoms network operator and a key cloud service provider, has jumped on the generative artificial intelligence (AI) bandwagon by launching its own natural language training model to challenge tech giants Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding and many others chasing the ChatGPT frenzy.
China Telecom's cloud unit CTYun is testing self-developed pre-trained large language models, the technology that underpins generative AI technology like ChatGPT, which US-based start-up OpenAI launched last November. CTYun will launch its product "in the near future when appropriate", said company general manager Hu Zhiqiang at an event in Fuzhou, capital of southeastern Fujian province, on Wednesday.
CTYun will also be cutting the cost of its cloud computing service, Hu added. That announcement coincided with a similar move by Alibaba Cloud, which announced this week that it would slash prices of its core products and services in the country by up to 50 per cent starting from May 7.
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China Telecom has quickly established itself as a growing rival in China's cloud services industry, which is currently dominated by Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.
The telecoms firm rose to become the third-largest player in the market in the second half of 2022, with 10.3 per cent market share, behind Alibaba at 31.9 per cent and Huawei Technologies at 12.1 per cent, according to market research firm IDC. Tencent Holdings fell to fourth place with 9.9 per cent of the market.
Earlier this month, Alibaba launched its own ChatGPT-like service called Tongyi Qianwen for corporate clients. It has already embedded the technology into the enterprise collaboration platform DingTalk, and plans to integrate it into Tmall Genie, the company's smart speaker.
Other Chinese tech giants have also raced to release chatbots with similar capabilities such as generating text, images and video based on specific prompts. The last to join the fray was video gaming giant NetEase, which this week unveiled CodeWave to help enterprise customers produce simple software without needing sophisticated programming skills.
Other companies including Tencent, SenseTime, JD.com and TikTok owner ByteDance have touted plans to either expand into generative AI or support clients' efforts to train large language models.
Internet search giant Baidu, the first major Chinese tech firm to launch ChatGPT rival, said earlier this week that the technology powering its Ernie Bot has achieved a 10-fold improvement in inference efficiency.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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