OpenAI’s latest chatbot is sending Chinese users into a frenzy even though it is officially unavailable in the country

  • OpenAI’s ChatGPT is proving a hit with China’s tech-savvy netizens, much like Microsoft’s Xiaoice was a decade ago
  • Typical interactions with Chinese users include asking the chatbot to write haikus or emails

Ben Jiangin Beijing
OpenAI’s latest chatbot is proving a hit with Chinese users. Photo: Reuters

The latest OpenAI chatbot has proved a hit among tech-savvy Chinese in the past week even though the service is officially unavailable for users in the country and requires a foreign phone number to register.

ChatGPT, which answers user questions, is a project from OpenAI, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) research lab founded in 2015 by a group of individuals and organisations, including current CEO Sam Altman. Tesla’s Elon Musk was also among the early founders.

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