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Chinese Big Tech firms from Tencent to Kuaishou tout advancing generative AI models in race to catch up

  • Short-video app operator Kuaishou is confident that KwaiYii can match GPT-4 in the next six months, CEO Cheng Yixiao says
  • Social media giant Tencent says it has been enhancing the ability of its AI models to create images and videos based on text prompts

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The Tencent Holdings headquarters in Shenzhen, China. Photo: Bloomberg
Ben Jiangin Beijing

Chinese tech giants from Tencent Holdings to Kuaishou Technology are accelerating efforts to improve and put to use their large language models (LLMs), the technology underpinning a new generation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

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Comments made by top executives this earnings season have offered a glimpse into the progress made by Chinese Big Tech firms, after US start-up OpenAI launched in late 2022 its groundbreaking ChatGPT chatbot and followed up with the video generator Sora last month.

The rapid advances in AI technology has fuelled a heated race among Chinese technology firms to catch up with global AI leaders.

The KwaiYii LLM from Kuaishou, a top Chinese short-video platform operator, has “significantly surpassed GPT-3.5 in overall performance … and is approaching the levels of GPT-4 in certain metrics”, said Cheng Yixiao, company founder and CEO, during its post-earnings call on Wednesday.

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Chinese AI-generated cartoon series broadcast on state television

Chinese AI-generated cartoon series broadcast on state television

GPT-4 is OpenAI’s most advanced LLM that is accessible by the public.

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Kuaishou is confident that KwaiYii can match GPT-4 in the next six months, Cheng said. The company also said that its KeTu text-to-image model has outperformed Midjourney V5, the AI image-generating service launched by San Francisco-based Midjourney a year ago.

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