China’s Quora-like Zhihu unveils AI-powered search-and-answer feature to engage more users

Zhihu, mainland China’s Quora-like question-and-answer service, on Saturday launched a new generative artificial intelligence (AI) feature that responds to users’ inquiries on the platform, showing how the technology has quickly become a component of online consumer tools in the country.

The feature called Zhida, which means “direct response” in Mandarin, taps into the platform’s vast content archive to automatically search, summarise and generate answers to users’ questions, according to Zhihu founder, chairman and chief executive Zhou Yuan, who unveiled the platform’s generative AI offering on Saturday at an event in Beijing.

With that launch, Zhihu has joined the ranks of Chinese technology companies that have enhanced their online services via the power of generative AI – algorithms that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations and videos.

Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings, an early backer of Zhihu, last year baked its Hunyuan large language model (LLM) – the technology underpinning generative AI services like ChatGPT – into more than 180 services, including conferencing app Tencent Meeting and web-based word processor Tencent Docs, along with its online advertising business and super app WeChat.

Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post, last year also integrated its own Tongyi Qianwen LLM to DingTalk, the e-commerce giant’s enterprise collaboration app, to make workplace communications more efficient. Alibaba in May revealed that its Tongyi Qianwen family of LLMs is already used by more than 90,000 corporate clients in China.