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
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.
ChatGPT is the latest in a series of AIs which the firm refers to as GPTs, an acronym for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer.
ChatGPT-related discussions have trended on Chinese social media platforms, with enthusiastic users sharing screenshots of their discussions with the chatbot – after they used a virtual private network (VPN) to try out the new system.
Typical interactions with Chinese users include asking the chatbot to write haikus or emails, asking it to conjure up a block of code by telling it the desired function, seeking life advice or just simply making fun of the system.
The enthusiastic response from users in China, which is trying to grow into a global AI power, showcases the strong demand for useful AI applications from ordinary internet users. A Weibo user named Wangluobei shared a screen capture of himself asking the chatbot to turn a few bullet points into a more detailed weekly report, saying that “this is definitely a necessity for those who work in the internet industry”.