More than 600 million on mainland now use LLMs amid rapid growth in GenAI adoption: report

More than 600 million people in mainland China are now using large language models (LLMs) – the technology behind generative artificial intelligence (AI) services like ChatGPT – that have been approved for commercial release by the government, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

That estimate was provided by Zhuang Rongwen, director of internet watchdog the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), who told Xinhua that generative AI (GenAI) services are “forcefully driving economic and societal growth”, without elaborating.

At present, the government has given the green light to 188 LLMs – averaging more than one AI model approved daily for the past six months. In January, a total of 14 LLMs and enterprise applications were approved by authorities for commercial use, according to local media reports and company announcements.

The tally of mainland users of commercially released LLMs shows the rapid adoption of GenAI technology in the world’s second-largest economy, about 20 months after OpenAI ignited a global frenzy when it released ChatGPT to the public on November 30, 2022.