FOUR Chinese tech firms, including Baidu Inc and SenseTime Group, on Thursday launched their artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to the public after receiving government approval, as China’s government pushes to widen the use of such products amid competition with the United States.

Baidu, China’s leading online search provider, said in a statement that its ChatGPT-like chatbot, Ernie Bot, was now fully accessible to the public. A SenseTime spokesperson said that its chatbot, SenseChat, was also now “fully available to serve all users”.

Two AI startups, Baichuan Intelligent Technology and Zhipu AI, also announced similar public launches on Thursday.

Unlike other countries, China requires companies to submit security assessments and receive clearance before releasing mass-market AI products.

Authorities have recently accelerated efforts to support companies developing AI as the technology increasingly becomes a focus of competition with the United States.

Chinese media reported that a total of 11 firms had received approvals from the government, including TikTok owner ByteDance and Tencent Holdings. Neither company immediately responded to requests for comment about their AI plans.

It is unclear whether Alibaba has received approval as of this week. But an Alibaba Cloud spokesperson said that the company has completed filings for its AI model, Tongyi Qianwen, and that the model is awaiting its official launch.

The person also said the company expects the regulators to release a list of companies with approvals within the coming week.

Being the first to market in China is considered critical for the country’s cut-throat internet industry. Baidu’s Ernie Bot topped the free app category on Apple’s App Store in China on Thursday after the announcement.

“I think the ones that got approved have an early mover advantage to be able to fine-tune their product faster than competitors,” Kai Wang, an analyst at Morningstar.

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft, is on track to generate more than $1 billion in revenue over the next 12 months, tech-focused publication The Information reported on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2023