Chinese firms scramble to take advantage of ChatGPT concept, even though the service is not officially available
- Baidu’s AI chatbot ‘Wenxin Yiyan’, or ‘Ernie Bot’ in English, will undergo internal testing in March before being made available to the public
- On Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace, hundreds of listings offer ChatGPT accounts, or help to conduct bot conversations on behalf of customers
Chinese companies from search engine provider Baidu to e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding are jumping on the ChatGPT bandwagon, rolling out their own versions of the technology or linking their applications to the OpenAI service.
Baidu has named its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot project “Wenxin Yiyan”, or “Ernie Bot” in English, and it “aims to complete internal testing in March before making the chatbot available to the public”, a Baidu representative said on Tuesday. The company’s Hong Kong-listed shares surged 15 per cent on Tuesday.
On Monday, Alibaba’s enterprise collaboration tool DingTalk published a user guide for adding ChatGPT to group chats via a valid token generated by the service, but emphasised that users “shall comply with the nation’s laws and regulations” when using it. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Chinese online luxury retailer Secoo Group said in a statement on Monday that it would conduct “in-depth research and expansion” on artificial intelligence-generated content (AIGC) and ChatGPT-related technologies to “realise interactive conversations similar to real people”. The platform has received complaints about its slow response to customer service inquiries.
Chinese printer and lottery technology developer Hongbo Co told investors on Tuesday that it was “developing and testing” relevant ChatGPT products. Separately, shares of Shanghai-listed 360 Security Technology rose by the daily limit of 10 per cent on Tuesday after it told investors it has been investing in technologies “similar to ChatGPT” since 2020.
On popular Chinese microblogging site Weibo, the hashtag “when will home-made ChatGPT alternatives be available” was trending among the top 10 topics on Monday evening.
The widely-discussed language generation model has reached 100 million users globally two months after its launch, according to UBS. Even in China, where the service is not available, users have been finding ways to access it and businesses are trying to profit from the concept.