Tech war: China narrows AI gap with US despite chip restrictions
- While text-to-video was pioneered by Sora, three Chinese tech firms have been able to put their AI video tools in the hands of global users
China is narrowing the artificial intelligence (AI) gap with the US through rapid progress in deploying applications and state-backed adoption of the technology, despite the lack of access to advanced chips, according to industry experts and analysts.
Chinese tech firms have rushed to create their own large language models (LLMs) – the underlying technology behind generative AI technologies like ChatGPT – with many even claiming to match or exceed their US counterparts, all amid tighter US restrictions on advanced chips considered critical to the training of AI systems.
“It’s an emerging trend that the lack of [advanced] graphic processing units in China, amid US restrictions on exports, results in the drive and push for efficiency in AI in China,” according to Winston Ma, author of the book Digital War – How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace.
In one example, Shengshu AI, a little-known start-up based in Beijing, launched its text-to-video tool this week, becoming the latest local firm to offer a Sora-style service for unlimited public use, after Kuaishou and Zhipu AI. The tool, called Vidu, is able to generate clips from Chinese and English text prompts.
