Chinese tech executives discuss how AI large language models can shape businesses

The Luohan Academy event, held annually to foster discussions around social and economic topics, attached higher importance to AI this year

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Chinese tech experts say there is a lot of potential for AI to bring down the barriers of global trade Photo: Handout

Ann Caoin Shanghai

Published: 7:00am, 5 Jul 2024

Chinese tech executives – including those from Alibaba Group Holding and generative artificial intelligence start-up Zhipu AI – discussed how large language models (LLMs) can shape businesses at the annual conference held by Luohan Academy, the open research institute initiated by Alibaba.

At the 2024 Luohan Academy Annual Digital Economy Conference, Zhang Fan, chief operating officer of Zhipu AI – one of China’s “four artificial intelligence (AI) tigers” – talked about how the tech unicorn helps companies train their own generative AI applications based on application programming interfaces (APIs).

Based on the company’s Model-as-a-Service platform, companies in various industries can fine-tune Zhipu AI’s LLM according to their business needs to create various applications. For instance, a major securities dealer in China had used this service to create an “AI brain”, which can carry out multiple tasks such as helping customers choose the best stock portfolio, and answering questions.

Zhang added that the company’s API service can act as an “alternative” for OpenAI, which is set to end its API access in China from July 9. The move by OpenAI has led to a heated race between Chinese LLM developers to fill in the void left by the US company.

Zhipu AI talked about how the tech unicorn helps companies train their own generative AI applications. Photo: Handout

Zhang is optimistic about the potential of the LLM application market. “There is a forecast that more than 80 per cent of companies will be using LLMs by 2026, while we have higher expectations than this,” said Zhang. “Today, no matter whether enterprises or individuals, [they] are more or less participating in the use of LLMs.”

The event, which is held annually to foster discussions around social and economic topics, is attaching higher importance to AI than before, as five out of the six sub-forums at the conference included the word “AI” in their main topics – including “AI and the future of socio-economic development”, “Fintech and AI”, and “AI for Business”.