iFlytek Introduces SparkDesk as Competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT
On Saturday, at an event in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, iFlytek presented SparkDesk, an artificial intelligence (AI) model for educational and enterprise use, in a live demonstration. SparkDesk aims to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a chatbot capable of responding to prompts and queries.
The presentation by Chairman Liu Qingfeng offered voice-recognition prompts for both Chinese and English students to assess essays and craft hypothetical stories about Confucius at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The event also provided the opportunity for the audience to pose questions. Mr Liu stated that the goal is to exceed OpenAI’s capabilities in the Chinese language and meet ChatGPT’s standards in English. He added, “The impact of this generative AI technology is no less important than that of the birth of the PC or the internet. We need to do our best to learn from ChatGPT and even seek to surpass it.”
Despite investors initially showing excitement over Baidu and SenseTime Group’s announcements regarding large language models, concerns over a potential bubble have grown. China’s top overseer of the internet has published draft guidelines that would mandate a security review of generative AI services before those services would be allowed to operate. Officials have also expressed the need to pay attention to the development of generative AI while mitigating risks.
There are also concerns about the long-term ability of Chinese companies to obtain high-end chips necessary for scaling up language models. iFlytek was added to the US Commerce Department’s blacklist in 2019 for its alleged involvement in the surveillance of minorities in Xinjiang, which has resulted in the company being unable to purchase critical US components. Chinese companies also face the challenge of training chatbot services to block sensitive or controversial information that the Communist Party blocks across the internet, as well as restrictions on datasets that can be used to train AI models.
While Baidu is viewed as the leading contender in China in the race to develop large language models, companies such as Alibaba Group Holding and Baidu have indicated that they plan to integrate AI into their suite of products, similar to Microsoft’s integration of ChatGPT in its Edge browser and Google’s use of Bard in its search results.
Sources: The Straits Times
