AI

Chinese AI firm SenseTime launches ChatGPT rival SenseNova, joining giants like Alibaba and Baidu in chatbot race

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  • Firm unveils SenseNova, a set of large AI models that cover key capabilities including computer vision, natural language processing and AI-generated content, during a live demonstration in Shanghai
  • In China, AI bots will initially develop fast in B2B territory before B2C companies start using them, co-founder and CEO says
The SenseTime office in Shanghai. The firm’s potential clients include internet firms such as e-commerce operators and video-game developers, co-founder and CEO Xu Li says. Photo: Reuters

Chinese artificial-intelligence (AI) company SenseTime unveiled its answer to ChatGPT on Monday, jumping onto the generative AI bandwagon as mainland Chinese technology companies race to commercialise the so-called large language model.

The company unveiled SenseNova, its latest set of large AI models that cover key capabilities including computer vision, natural language processing and AI-generated content, during a live demonstration at its data centre in Shanghai’s Lingang free-trade zone.

“In China, AI bots will initially develop fast in B2B [business-to-business] territory before business-to-customer [B2C] companies start using them,” said Xu Li, SenseTime’s co-founder and CEO. “We need to improve our technological capabilities and fine-tune services to better commercialise AI.”

The launch of SenseTime’s AI models follows similar moves by Chinese search-engine giant Baidu and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, which owns this newspaper, after ChatGPT – an AI chatbot released to the public by Microsoft-backed OpenAI late last year – prompted Chinese technology companies to come up with their own versions. ChatGPT, which was updated with a latest version called GPT-4 last month, has gained widespread attention because of its ability to hold humanlike conversations.

Source: SCMP