The Beijing startup based by know-how pioneer Kai-Fu Lee is introducing its first artificial-intelligence utility for shoppers, a step aimed toward serving to China capitalize on the promising know-how.
Lee’s agency, 01.AI, is launching a free productiveness assistant referred to as Wanzhi, the most recent in a collection of AI merchandise it’s growing. Much like Microsoft Corp.’s Workplace 365 Copilot, it helps customers create spreadsheets, paperwork and slide displays extra rapidly—although it’s primarily tailor-made for the Chinese language market. It will possibly interpret monetary experiences, take minutes for conferences and speed-read books so long as Elon Musk’s 600,000-word biography to provide a fast synopsis. The app works in Chinese language and English.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Lee mentioned that China wants its personal ChatGPT—OpenAI’s chatbot that was launched in 2022 and is banned within the nation—to speed up curiosity, adoption and funding.
“For People, the second occurred 17 months in the past,” Lee mentioned over a Zoom name from Beijing. “China’s customers didn’t have a ChatGPT second. Till now, not one of the Chinese language chatbots or instruments have been adequate.”
Whereas U.S. corporations akin to OpenAI, Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. have taken the lead in generative AI, Chinese language gamers are urgent exhausting to catch up. Along with 01.AI, tech gamers together with Baidu Inc. and TikTok-parent ByteDance Ltd. are pouring funds into growing their very own AI fashions and chatbot providers. Beijing has additionally supplied monetary and coverage help. Beijing bars international AI fashions partly due to its strict censorship regime, however the so-called Nice Firewall additionally ensures that home gamers can have an infinite native market with out international competitors.
The Taiwan-born 62-year-old—who labored for Apple Inc. and Google earlier than beginning his personal enterprise capital agency greater than a decade in the past—turned chief govt officer at 01.AI final 12 months. The startup reached a $1 billion valuation, or unicorn standing, inside eight months on the energy of an open-source AI mannequin that outperformed Silicon Valley rivals on a number of key measures.
Along with Wanzhi, the agency can also be introducing an even bigger, proprietary giant language mannequin—the know-how underpinning AI chatbots—referred to as Yi-Giant, aimed toward enterprise customers.
Software program builders will be capable of use the Yi-Giant mannequin at aggressive costs. Lee says the mannequin’s utility programming interface, or API, will value $2.50 for 1 million enter tokens and $12 for 1 million output tokens—about 1 million tokens lets a developer ship roughly ship 250 queries backwards and forwards. That’s far lower than with OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo, he mentioned.
Like many Chinese language corporations, 01.AI stockpiled “graphics processing unit” semiconductors from Nvidia Corp. when it turned obvious the U.S. authorities was planning to ban the export of high-end chips, such because the H100s which might be used to coach main AI providers. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese language e-commerce big that invested in Lee’s agency, supplied an extra provide of H100s, and 01.AI supplemented its wants with barely slower and fewer highly effective Nvidia H800 processors.
“Our fashions have been skilled on H100s processors legally introduced into China,” Lee mentioned. “Necessity is the mom of invention, we squeeze all the pieces we are able to from the compute out there.”
In distinction to many international AI startups, Lee mentioned 01.AI is nearing profitability. After coaching the fashions on Chinese language and common knowledge units, Lee is taking the fashions and apps international, and signing up home in addition to abroad prospects to spice up income subsequent 12 months.
After a month-and-a-half of testing on customers, Lee’s firm is rolling a model of Wanzhi for PC browsers with extra complete options, and one for mobiles, accessible by the messaging service WeChat. He’s showing in video tutorials on Douyin, the Chinese language model of TikTok, to teach potential customers.
“The 12 months 2024 can be explosive for generative AI functions in China,” Lee mentioned.
Lee mentioned his startup is closing the second tranche of a $250 million pre-Sequence A spherical in a number of weeks and, by the 12 months’s finish, will begin on the lookout for traders for its Sequence A. The corporate has additionally streamlined its {hardware} and software program processes to maximise effectivity and hold prices down.
“When GPT-5 comes, we can be steps behind,” Lee mentioned, referring to OpenAI’s rumored next-generation AI mannequin. However 01.AI is targeted on making AI inexpensive quite than creating large, dearer fashions. “You possibly can construct a large superb spaceship, however can it take you from Sacramento to San Francisco?”
