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Chinese fintech giant Ant Group unveils own AI large language model, along with new Web3 brand, in push to expand presence in financial sector

  • Ant indicated that its AI large language model already outperforms ‘mainstream general-purpose LLMs’ in terms of financial scenarios
  • Its foray into the LLM arena underscores the increased competition among China’s Big Tech firms to close the gap with the West in using generative AI

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Ant Group has started transforming its entire fintech business on the back of the firm’s own artificial intelligence large language model. Photo: Reuters
Ann Caoin Shanghai
Ant Group has launched its own large language model (LLM) – the technology used to train chatbots like ChatGPT – and a new Web3 brand targeting Hong Kong and overseas markets, as the Chinese fintech giant boosts its capabilities in generative artificial intelligence (AI) for the financial services industry.
The Hangzhou-based company on Friday unveiled its self-developed “financial LLM” at the “Inclusion Conference on the Bund” event in Shanghai, along with two applications powered by the group’s AI model.

“We have built computing power at a level of 10,000 GPUs [graphics processing units],” Ant vice-president Wang Xiaohang said at the conference. “On this basis, Ant’s entire financial business has quickly switched to the LLM paradigm.”

Ant’s financial LLM was used to upgrade Zhixiaobao, the firm’s consumer-facing “intelligent financial assistant” for wealth management and insurance, to help users in various scenarios including generating asset-management plans. It also helped build Zhixiaozhu, an application that can assist finance practitioners in areas including investment research, insurance and marketing.

Executives of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group introduce the company’s artificial intelligence large language model for the financial services industry at an industry event in Shanghai on September 8, 2023. Photo: Weibo
Executives of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group introduce the company’s artificial intelligence large language model for the financial services industry at an industry event in Shanghai on September 8, 2023. Photo: Weibo

The upgraded Zhixiaobao will be available to users when it receives regulatory approval, while Zhixiaozhu is undergoing additional closed tests by Ant and industry partners, according to the company.

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