2023-04-18 04:30:15
After weeks of enthusiasm in China for artificial intelligence (AI)-based applications in the line of ChatGPT, the authorities have whistled the end of recess.
China’s Cyberspace Administration introduced a bill on April 11 that would subject AI services to a security audit before they are put on the market. Companies will need to ensure that the information provided by their tools is accurate, respects intellectual property, does not discriminate and does not create a danger for social stability.
Above all, the answers provided by these tools should “embody fundamental socialist values and (…) not contain any content that advocates the overthrow of the socialist system, incites division of the country or undermines national unity”. Companies have been warned: there is no question of dressing President Xi Jinping in a bright red down jacket, as we saw the Pope in a white down jacket, an image created from scratch by the Californian start-up Midjourney.
The announcement of this legislation regulating the sector accompanied several warnings: on April 10, the Economic Dailya state-run newspaper, said in an editorial that the companies involved were showing “signals of a speculative bubble”with many companies taking advantage of the wave of AI and chatbots to attract investors without showing anything concrete.
A more than mixed reception
Several companies saw their capitalization plummet after these announcements: the action of CloudWalk Technology, an AI start-up, known for its facial recognition software, fell 33% on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, after seeing its quadruple value since the beginning of the year. Securities of Baidu – which develops the search engine of the same name – and SenseTime, more serious players in the sector, also fell by 6% and 16% respectively after the publication of the bill.
What complicates the task of the Chinese tech giants in their race to catch up with ChatGPT, creation of the Californian start-up OpenAI.
After Baidu, which unveiled its conversational robot Ernie Bot at the end of March, the e-commerce giant Alibaba unveiled its own on April 11. The day before, SenseTime, a Chinese start-up known for its capabilities in facial recognition, presented an offer of AI-based services ranging from chatbots to image creation, including professional tools such as design. Huawei, the telecom champion, will also integrate a conversational robot into its business services. More than a dozen other Chinese start-ups have entered the battle.
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