China’s capital Beijing to provide state-sponsored computing resources to AI firms amid ChatGPT frenzy
- The municipal government has introduced a draft policy aimed at shoring up the development of large language models and computing power
- But the city also acknowledged the challenge posed by the lack of high-quality Chinese language materials to train AI models
The Beijing government has unveiled a new draft policy supporting the Chinese capital city’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, which includes the provision of state-funded computing power for relevant companies, as the country sees renewed interest in the technology amid intensified rivalry with the US.
The policy, which is aimed at “grabbing and seizing” opportunities in large language models (LLMs) and the field of artificial general intelligence (AGI), tasks Beijing with synergising resources and facilitating an innovative ecosystem to bolster its leading position in AI innovation, according to a notice published on the Beijing municipal government’s website last Friday.
Besides LLMs and AGI, three other areas are highlighted: computing power, training data, and regulations.
The government is soliciting public feedback on the draft through Friday.
Beijing’s move to coordinate computing resources, which is one of the most critical components for training AI models, comes as the US has been dialling up its export restrictions on high-end chips, including California-based Nvidia’s top-end A100 graphics processing unit, which is used for training and deploying large-scale AI models.