OpenAI’s recent text-to-video model Sora has fired a fresh warning shot to China about its gap with the world’s top artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, triggering questions about why the country has no equivalent product in an echo of the kind of soul-searching local researchers and investors went through after the 2022 launch of ChatGPT.
Just a few years ago, China had envisioned itself eventually dominating the global AI race by leveraging the country’s vast troves of data to develop mature applications for functions like facial recognition. Recent developments in generative AI – which uses large models to produce content like text, images and video – have changed the calculus, making China look like a laggard once again.
Sora, launched on February 16, moves the AI battle into the realm of video generation just as China is facing greater challenges from a lack of access to key tools such as advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) developed by Nvidia, the leading AI chip designer, owing to escalating US export restrictions. The country’s best AI players are already a number of years behind their American peers in generative AI, an area in which Beijing’s self-trumpeted internet governance model looks like a liability.
Zhou Hongyi, the founder of Chinese internet security firm 360 Security Technology, which has joined China’s race to launch its own ChatGPT-style large language model, said the introduction of Sora was like a “barrel of cold water poured down China’s head”, Chinese media Yicai reported on Friday. “It cools down the heads of many people, forcing us to see the gap with leaders overseas,” he added.
In one knee-jerk response to Sora this week, Beijing asked its most trusted state-owned enterprises to take a lead on AI. The State Council’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission on Monday urged firms under direct control of the central government to “embrace the profound changes brought about by AI”. Ten of these firms were designated as champions to promote AI, but the watchdog did not name the selected companies.