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Source: Global Times

July 24th article in the New York Times, titled: China is narrowing the gap with the United States in the field of artificial intelligence At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai this month, Qu Dongqi, a startup founder, showed a video that had recently appeared online: an old photo of a woman leading two toddlers. Then, as if the photo came to life, the woman held the two toddlers in her arms, and the children smiled in surprise. The video was made using artificial intelligence (AI) technology from Kuaishou, a Chinese internet company. It was reminiscent of Sora, a video generator launched this year by OpenAI, an American startup. But unlike Sora, it is open to the public. "Some of my American friends still can't use Sora, and we have a better solution here," said Mr. Qu.

The United States has a first-mover advantage in AI development, but China is catching up. In recent weeks, several Chinese companies have released AI technologies that are comparable to leading American systems. These technologies have been used by many consumers, businesses and independent software developers around the world. Many American companies are worried that AI technology will accelerate the spread of false information or cause other harms, while Chinese companies are more willing to open their technology to consumers and even share the underlying software code with other companies and software developers.

This way of sharing computer code, called open source, allows others to build and release their own products using the same technology more quickly. Openness has been a cornerstone of computer software, the internet, and now AI. The idea is that technology advances faster when computer code is free for anyone to examine, use, and improve. As AI technology continues to advance, China's approach could have a huge impact. The technology could improve productivity, drive future innovation, and more.

In 2022, OpenAI released the online chatbot ChatGPT, setting off an AI boom. At that time, China still found it difficult to compete with American companies such as OpenAI. But the progress of Chinese companies is accelerating. Experts and researchers from more than a dozen Chinese technology companies said that open source technology is the key reason why China's AI has developed so rapidly, and open source AI is an opportunity for China to take the lead. It's not easy. The United States is still at the forefront of AI research. The White House is trying to prevent Chinese companies from using the most powerful chips that are critical to building AI, while others are trying to limit the development of open source technology. Many people in China's technology industry believe that despite the restrictions, China may gain a significant advantage if US regulators stifle the progress of US open source projects. If the best open source technology comes from China, American developers may eventually build their systems on top of Chinese technology. Clement De Lange, CEO of Hugging Face, an open source model library company, said that the United States has established its leading position in AI through cooperation between companies and scientific researchers, "and China looks like it can do the same."

Some worry that China will have trouble amassing the chips it needs to build increasingly powerful technology. But that hasn't stopped Chinese companies from developing powerful new technologies that can rival American systems. AI systems require a lot of resources: talent, data, and computing power. By offering state-of-the-art AI technology for free, China's tech giants are showing their willingness to contribute to the country's overall technological progress. Beijing says the power and profits of the tech industry should be used to achieve the goal of autonomy. (Author: Megan Tobin, etc., translated by Qiao Heng)