Chinese AI Firms Shine at AI Event Amid US Sanctions

Chinese tech companies, including industry giants and startups, gathered at the World AI Conference in Shanghai to showcase innovations and express support for the country’s AI sector amid U.S. sanctions

The conference features over 150 AI-related products and solutions, with a small number of foreign firms, including Tesla and Qualcomm, joining the predominantly Chinese line-up, according to the event organizer.

Additionally, the conference has been utilized as a platform for specific organizations to unveil their most recent AI products.

SenseTime, which was previously focused on facial recognition technology, has recently shifted its attention to generative AI following the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in late 2022. This is a notable example.

The company unveiled its SenseNova 5.5, its most advanced large language model (LLM), on Friday. This model is positioned as a competitor to OpenAI’s GPT-4o in areas such as mathematical reasoning.

Many executives at the conference expressed confidence that Chinese companies will continue to flourish in the AI sector despite the challenges posed by U.S. sanctions that restrict access to advanced chips.

Zhang Ping’an, the executive in charge of Huawei’s cloud computing unit, stated at a forum that the notion that a scarcity of the most advanced artificial intelligence processors will impede China’s ambition to become a leader in AI must be “rejected.”

“Nobody will deny that we are facing limited computing power in China,” according to Zhang. “If we believe that not having the most advanced AI chips means we will be unable to lead in AI, then we must abandon this viewpoint.”

Zhang urged increased innovation in sectors such as cloud computing to resolve the scarcity of access to state-of-the-art chips.

Liu Qingfeng, the chairman of AI company Iflytek, reiterated this sentiment. Iflytek, like Huawei, has been on a sanctions list that prohibits it from acquiring advanced chips from U.S. companies.

Liu stated in an interview on the WeChat account of the state-owned China News Service that numerous LLMs developed by Chinese companies, including Iflytek’s, have been able to compete with OpenAI’s GPT-4.

“We must have our LLMs that are independently developed and controlled by China, capable of benchmarking against the highest global standards and continuously narrowing the gap,” he emphasized.

Certain executives, such as Robin Li, the CEO of Chinese search engine behemoth Baidu (9888. HK), have encouraged the AI industry to prioritize the adoption of AI over developing LLMs, which necessitate enormous computing power and AI chips.

“Without applications, having only foundational models, whether open-source or closed-source, is worthless,” Li asserted during the conference.