As the country works to catch up to the United States in AI development, China has authorized more than 40 artificial intelligence (AI) models for public use in the first six months after authorities started the licensing process, according to Chinese media.
According to Chinese state-backed Securities Times, 14 large language models (LLM) were approved by Chinese regulators last week for usage by the general public. This represents the fourth round of approvals that China has given, with recipients including Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK), opens new tab, 4Paradigm (6682.HK), opens new tab, and 01.AI.
In August of last year, Beijing began to require tech companies to get regulatory approval before opening their LLMs to the public. It emphasized how China is working to advance AI technology while attempting to maintain control over it.
Soon after the certification method was adopted, in August, Beijing approved its first batch of AI models. Among the first Chinese firms to gain authorization were Baidu (9888.HK), Alibaba (9988.HK), and ByteDance (opens new tab).
Before another batch was approved this month, Chinese regulators approved two more batches in November and December. Securities Times reported on Sunday that more than 40 AI models have been certified, despite the government not disclosing the precise list of companies that have been approved and are available for public scrutiny.
Since OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT became widely popular in 2022, Chinese firms have been racing to develop AI products.
