31-5-2023 (BEIJING) Chinese organizations have made significant strides in the development of large-language models (LLMs), with a total of 79 LLMs launched in the country over the past three years, according to a report published by state-run research institutes. These organizations have intensified their efforts to develop artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, leveraging deep learning techniques and extensive text data.
The report, authored by research institutes under the Ministry of Science and Technology, highlighted that the development of LLMs entered an “accelerated” phase in 2020. During that year, Chinese organizations released two LLMs, compared to 11 in the United States. However, the numbers surged in 2021, with both China and the United States launching 30 LLMs each.
In the following year, US organizations released a total of 37 LLMs, while China launched 28, according to data compiled in the report, which involved the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China as one of its co-authors.
As of the current year, China has taken the lead with 19 LLMs, while the United States closely follows with 18.
The report highlighted that China and the United States dominate the global landscape of large-language model releases, accounting for over 80 percent of the total. The United States has consistently held the top position in terms of the number of large-language models released.
The release of this report comes at a time when China’s AI industry faces significant challenges due to US-led export controls, which restrict Chinese organizations from accessing semiconductors required for training LLMs and other advanced computing tasks.
The report analyzed the 79 LLMs developed in China and noted that while there were already 14 provinces and regions involved in the development of such technology, joint projects between academia and industry were still deemed “insufficient.”
Following the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Chinese tech giants including Alibaba, Sensetime (a surveillance firm), and Baidu (a search engine giant) have launched their own chatbot versions powered by generative AI and LLMs.
