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Technology pioneer Kai-Fu Lee aims to bring China its ChatGPT moment

Technology pioneer Kai-Fu Lee aims to bring China its ChatGPT moment

by | May 13, 2024 | Technology


4 min read Last Updated : May 13 2024 | 7:10 AM IST


By Saritha Rai

 


The Beijing startup founded by technology pioneer Kai-Fu Lee is introducing its first artificial-intelligence application for consumers, a step aimed at helping China capitalise on the promising technology. 

 

Lee’s firm, 01.AI, is launching a free productivity assistant called Wanzhi, the latest in a series of AI products it’s developing.

Similar to Microsoft Corp.’s Office 365 Copilot, it helps users create spreadsheets, documents and slide presentations more quickly — though it’s mainly tailored for the Chinese market. It can interpret financial reports, take minutes for meetings and speed-read books as long as Elon Musk’s 600,000-word biography to give a quick synopsis. The app works in Chinese and English. 


In an interview with Bloomberg, Lee said that China needs its own ChatGPT — OpenAI’s chatbot that was released in 2022 and is banned in the country — to accelerate interest, adoption and investment. 


“For Americans, the moment happened 17 months ago,” Lee said over a Zoom call from Beijing. “China’s users didn’t have a ChatGPT moment. Until now, none of the Chinese chatbots or tools have been good enough.”


While US firms such as OpenAI, Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. have taken the lead in generative AI, Chinese players are pressing hard to catch up. In addition to 01.AI, tech players including Baidu Inc. and TikTok-parent ByteDance Ltd. are pouring funds into developing their own AI models and chatbot services. Beijing has also provided financial and policy support. Beijing bars foreign AI models in part because of its strict censorship regime, but the so-called Great Firewall also ensures that domestic players will have an enormous local market without global competition.


The Taiwan-born 62-year-old — who worked for Apple Inc. and Google before starting his own venture capital firm more than a decade ago — became chief executive officer at 01.AI last year. The startup reached a $1 billion valuation, or unicorn status, within eight months on the strength of an open-source AI model that outperformed Silicon Valley rivals on several key measures.


In addition to Wanzhi, the firm is also introducing a bigger, proprietary large language model — the technology underpinning AI chatbots — called Yi-Large, aimed at enterprise users.


Software developers will be able to use the Yi-Large model at competitive prices. Lee says the model’s application programming interface, or API, will cost $2.50 for 1 million input tokens and $12 for 1 million output tokens — about 1 million tokens lets a developer send roughly send 250 queries back and forth. That’s far less than with OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo, he said.


Like many Chinese companies, 01.AI stockpiled “graphics processing unit” semiconductors from Nvidia Corp. when it became apparent the US government was planning to ban the export of high-end chips, such as the H100s that are used to train leading AI services. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese e-commerce giant that invested in Lee’s firm, provided an additional supply of H100s, and 01.AI supplemented its needs with slightly slower and less powerful Nvidia H800 processors. 


“Our models have been trained on H100s processors legally brought into China,” Lee said. “Necessity is the mother of invention, we squeeze everything we can from the compute available.”


In contrast to many global AI startups, Lee said 01.AI is nearing profitability. After training the models on Chinese and universal data sets, Lee is taking the models and apps global, and signing up domestic as well as overseas customers to boost revenue next year. 


After a month-and-a-half of testing on users, Lee’s company is rolling a version of Wanzhi for PC browsers with more comprehensive features, and one for mobiles, accessible through the messaging service WeChat. He’s appearing in video tutorials on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to coach potential users. 


“The year 2024 will be explosive for generative AI applications in China,” Lee said.


Lee said his startup is closing the second tranche of a $250 million pre-Series A round in a few weeks and, by the year’s end, will start looking for investors for its Series A. The company has also streamlined its hardware and software processes to maximise efficiency and keep costs down.


“When GPT-5 comes, we will be steps behind,” Lee said, referring to OpenAI’s rumored next-generation AI model. But 01.AI is focused on making AI affordable rather than creating massive, more expensive models. “You can build a giant amazing spaceship, but can it take you from Sacramento to San Francisco?”

First Published: May 13 2024 | 7:10 AM IST



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Southeast Asia fast emerging as centre of gravity for tech industry

Southeast Asia fast emerging as centre of gravity for tech industry

by | May 11, 2024 | Technology


The advent of AI is spurring tech leaders to pursue new sources of growth, laying the digital infrastructure of the region’s future. Photographer: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg

6 min read Last Updated : May 11 2024 | 8:48 AM IST


By Olivia Poh and Suvashree Ghosh

Long considered a tech hinterland, Southeast Asia is fast emerging as a centre of gravity for the industry.


The CEOs of Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Nvidia Corp. are among the industry chieftains who’ve swung through the region in past months, committing billions of dollars in investment and holding forth with heads of state from Indonesia to Malaysia. Amazon.com Inc. just this week took over a giant conference hall in downtown Singapore to unfurl a $9 billion investment plan before a thousands-strong audience cheering and waving glow sticks.


After decades of playing second fiddle to China and Japan, the region of about 675 million people is drawing more tech investment than ever. For data centres alone, the world’s biggest companies are set to splurge up to $60 billion over the next few years as Southeast Asia’s young populations embrace video streaming, online shopping and generative AI. 


Traditionally welcoming to Western investment, the region’s moment has arrived as China turns more hostile to US firms and India remains tougher to navigate politically. Silicon Valley is setting its sights on business-friendly regimes, fast-growing talent pool and rising incomes. The advent of AI is spurring tech leaders to pursue new sources of growth, laying the digital infrastructure of the region’s future.

“Countries like Singapore and Malaysia are largely neutral to the geopolitical tensions happening with China, US, Ukraine and Russia,” said Sean Lim, a managing partner at Singapore-based NWD Holdings, which invests in AI-based projects and other areas. “Especially with the ongoing wars, this region has become more attractive.”

Take Tim Cook and Satya Nadella, who last month embarked on their biggest tours across Southeast Asia in years. The investments they pledged are set to help turn the region into a major battleground between the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google in future frontiers such as artificial intelligence and the cloud.


The region’s growing workforce is making it a viable alternative to China as a centre of talent to support companies’ global operations. As its governments pushed for improvements in education and infrastructure, it’s become an attractive base for everything from manufacturing and data centres to research and design.


“The governments are pro cross-border investments and there’s a deep talent pool,” said NWD’s Lim.


Southeast Asia has also become a sizeable market for gadgets and online services. About 65 per cent of Southeast Asia will be middle class by 2030, with rising purchasing power, according to Singapore government estimates. That’ll help more than double the region’s market for internet-based services to $600 billion, according to estimates by Google, Temasek Holdings Pte and Bain & Co.

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Apple, whose pricey gadgets for long remained out of reach for the vast majority in the region, is now adding stores. Chief Executive Officer Cook toured Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore in late April, meeting prime ministers and announcing fresh investments as the company seeks new growth regions beyond China, where sales have sputtered.


In Jakarta, besides pow-wows with the country’s leadership, Cook met a local influencer with almost 800,000 Instagram followers over chicken satay, and learned enough of the local language to say “How are you” in a video circulated on social media. On his X account, local customers asked Cook for an Apple Store and better servicing of Apple products in the country. Following the trip, Apple reported its revenue in Indonesia had reached a record, even as total global sales declined.


“These are markets where our market share is low,” Cook said on a conference call last week. “The populations are large and growing. And our products are really making a lot of progress.”


Microsoft CEO Nadella also received an enthusiastic welcome after meeting with the leaders of Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand last week. In Bangkok, under a ballroom’s shimmering chandeliers, he was seen shaking hands and conversing with high-ranking government officials and the country’s top business elites.


Southeast Asia’s draw becomes apparent once you consider slowing toplines in Silicon Valley, which is struggling now to lay the foundations of AI — anticipated to become an industry-defining technology. Within the next few weeks, two major AI-themed events in Singapore are set to feature top leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and others to further tout the technology’s promise for Southeast Asia.


A specific catalyst for the tech companies is generative AI, with services like ChatGPT rapidly gaining users. Southeast Asia’s accelerating AI adoption has the potential to add about $1 trillion to the region’s economy by 2030, according to a report by consulting firm Kearney.


That means more data centres are needed to store and process the massive amounts of information traversing between content creators, companies and customers. Data centre demand in Southeast Asia and North Asia is expected to expand about 25 per cent a year through 2028, according to Cushman & Wakefield data. That compares with 14 per cent a year in the US. By 2028, Southeast Asia will become the second largest non-US source of data centre revenue in the world.

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Hotspots include Malaysia’s southern Johor Bahru region, where Nvidia last year teamed up with a local utility for a plan to build a $4.3 billion AI data centre park. Nvidia is also targeting Vietnam, which CEO Jensen Huang sees as a potential second home for the company, local media reported during his visit in December. Huang was spotted enjoying street food and egg coffee, a Vietnam specialty, as he hung out with local tech contacts in a black T-shirt and jeans.


The company has since reviewed Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang as potential locations for investments, with Keith Strier, its vice president of worldwide AI initiatives, touring the cities last month.


A region consisting of about a dozen politically, culturally and geographically disparate countries, Southeast Asia isn’t the easiest market for global companies to operate in. Risks include difficulties navigating local working cultures, as well as the volatility of the various currencies, said NWD’s Lim.


But for now, the tech majors are embracing the region’s advantages such as its relatively low-cost yet highly skilled workforce — helpful for building expensive technologies such as large language models that require not just a lot of cash but also skilled engineers. Most of the US firms announced training programs with local governments, with Microsoft promising to train a total 2.5 million people in AI skills in Southeast Asia by 2025.


“This shift is influenced by both external and internal drivers,” said Nicholas Lee, associate director in political consultancy firm Global Counsel’s Singapore office. “Besides the intensifying US-China rivalry and policy divergence across major jurisdictions, subdued revenue growth and rising costs also underline the need for companies to manage expenses prudently.”

First Published: May 11 2024 | 8:08 AM IST



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Apple closes in on agreement with OpenAI to put ChatGPT on iPhone

Apple closes in on agreement with OpenAI to put ChatGPT on iPhone

by | May 11, 2024 | Technology


Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

2 min read Last Updated : May 11 2024 | 8:07 AM IST


By Mark Gurman and Julia Love

Apple Inc. has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the startup’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence features to its devices, according to people familiar with the matter.

 


The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc.’s Google about licensing that company’s Gemini chatbot. Those discussions haven’t led to an agreement, but are ongoing. 


An OpenAI accord would let Apple offer a popular chatbot as part of a flurry of new AI features that it’s planning to announce next month. Bloomberg reported in April that the discussions with OpenAI had intensified. Still, there’s no guarantee that an agreement will be announced imminently. 


Representatives for Apple, OpenAI and Google declined to comment. 


Apple plans to make a splash in the artificial intelligence world in June, when it holds its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. As part of the push, the company will run some of its upcoming artificial intelligence features via data centers equipped with its own in-house processors, Bloomberg has reported. 


Last year, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said he personally uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT but added that there were “a number of issues that need to be sorted.” He promised that new AI features would come to Apple’s products on a “very thoughtful basis.”


On Apple’s earnings conference call last week, he argued that Apple would have an edge in AI.


“We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI, and we believe we have advantages that will differentiate us in this new era, including Apple’s unique combination of seamless hardware, software and services integration,” Cook said during the earnings call.

First Published: May 11 2024 | 8:07 AM IST



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Uttar Pradesh govt plans to promote agri startups, introduce AI in farming

Uttar Pradesh govt plans to promote agri startups, introduce AI in farming

by | May 10, 2024 | Technology


3 min read Last Updated : May 10 2024 | 5:02 PM IST


The Uttar Pradesh government has partnered with the agriculture industry to bolster agri startups and introduce artificial intelligence (AI) in farming to boost rural economy and ‘smart farming’ practices.


The Yogi Adityanath government is also planning to host a global farmers’ summit ‘Krishi Bharat’ in November 2024 in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).


Delegations of farmers and agri experts from countries like the US, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Poland, France, Spain, Indonesia, and Kenya will participate in the four-day mega event in Lucknow.


The state is looking to host the farm summit on the same scale as the UP Global Investors Summit (GIS) held in February 2023, which fetched the state more than 19,000 investment proposals to the tune of Rs 40 trillion from domestic and multinational companies.




While UP is among the leading agricultural producers, the state suffers from lower per hectare yield and sub-optimal food processing. This translates to lower farm incomes and higher farm wastage.


“The farm summit will encompass various agri startups, foreign companies, and global venture capitalists looking for opportunities to invest in the domestic agricultural value chain,” Tarun Sawhney, chairman, CII Krishi Bharat 2024, and vice-chairman & managing director, Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd, said.


He said since UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is a strong votary of farm issues, it was helping the industry to walk an extra mile towards facilitating the farm economy and agri innovations.




The state is looking at sending state progressive farmers to foreign countries for knowledge sharing in best agricultural practices. It will also showcase ‘agri tourism’, arranging field visits to foreign delegations to familiarise them with local farm practices and allied activities.


In UP, the net cropped area is estimated at more than 20 million hectares, which is almost 85 per cent of the state’s total land mass. UP tops in sugarcane and dairy production.


Paddy and rice accounts for the largest, 33 per cent, of the state’s cropped area, followed by wheat, pulses, and oilseeds at 33 per cent, sugarcane 16 per cent, and maize and millets at 14 per cent.


UP has 88 per cent of its landmass as irrigated area. Out of this, tube wells account for 70 per cent followed by canals at 10 per cent, and wells at 6.5 per cent.


Madhav Singhania, Chairman, CII Northern Region & Deputy Managing Director & CEO, JK Cement Ltd, said the industry is keen to resolve policy issues in consultation with the government and policymakers and upgrading the technology quotient in agriculture.

First Published: May 10 2024 | 4:55 PM IST



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OnePlus 13 could feature square-shaped camera island similar to this phone

OnePlus 13 could feature square-shaped camera island similar to this phone

by | May 10, 2024 | Technology


Representative image: OnePlus 10T

3 min read Last Updated : May 10 2024 | 3:03 PM IST

Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus could launch its next flagship smartphone, likely to be named OnePlus 13, with a redesigned rear camera module. According to a report by the Android Authority, the next flagship smartphone by OnePlus could feature a more squarish camera module compared to a circular design on the current generation.


OnePlus has retained the circular camera module design on its flagship number series for the past two generations. Both the OnePlus 11 and the OnePlus 12 series feature a circular camera module with a ring style frame outlining it. As per the report, OnePlus is likely to move back to a square-shaped camera module like the one on its OnePlus 10 series. However, the placement of the rear camera module could be more centrally aligned and will be larger than that on the OnePlus 10.


OnePlus 13: Other expected changes


Apart from the rear camera module redesign, there are other design changes expected on the next-generation OnePlus flagship smartphone. Earlier, it was reported that the expected OnePlus 13 smartphone could get a ceramic body and not just a ceramic glass finish. The next-generation OnePlus flagship could also debut with a quad-curved display panel, featuring much more subtle display curves than the current waterfall display design.


On the performance front, the OnePlus 13 could be powered by the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip, which has been confirmed by Qualcomm to launch in October. This will not be a surprising change as OnePlus has regularly updated its flagship smartphone with the latest Qualcomm flagship chip. Apart from these changes, the next generation flagship could retain OnePlus 12’s 5,400mAh battery and 100W fast wired charging support.


Like other big OEM makers such as Samsung and Google, OnePlus could bring native generative AI features to its flagship series next year. While the company has already introduced AI Eraser, an AI powered image editing feature that allows users to remove unwanted elements from images, OnePlus could add more new tools on its OnePlus 13 smartphone.


At the launch of the AI Eraser tool, which is currently rolling out on the OnePlus 12 series, OnePlus 11, OnePlus Open, and OnePlus Nord CE 4 smartphones, OnePlus’s general manager of AI products, Nicole Zhang, said that the company plans to continue investing in developing more revolutionary AI-based features. This suggests that the company is actively working to develop new AI features which could launch alongside the company’s next flagship device. 

First Published: May 10 2024 | 2:55 PM IST



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ROG Ally X: ASUS next-gen handheld gaming console set to launch on June 2

ROG Ally X: ASUS next-gen handheld gaming console set to launch on June 2

by | May 10, 2024 | Technology


Representative Image: ASUS ROG Ally

2 min read Last Updated : May 10 2024 | 1:08 PM IST

ASUS has announced that it will launch the ROG Ally X hand-held gaming console on June 2. Like the ROG Ally, the Taiwanese electronics maker confirmed, the X edition will be based on Windows 11 platform, powered by AMD Z1 Extreme chipset. Moreover, ASUS confirmed that the gaming console will sport a 7-inch LCD display of 120Hz refresh rate and will be offered in black colour. Soon after the launch date announcement, ASUS held an interview with US-based consumer technology news platform The Verge where it shared details about the device.


ASUS ROG Ally X: Details


ASUS senior vice president, Shawn Yen, in an interview with The Verge, said that the ROG Ally X will pack a substantially larger battery pack into a newly designed shell. “We’re not looking at 30 to 40 per cent more capacity, we’re looking at way more than that,” Yen said. According to Yen, an improved battery life was the most requested upgrade from the community and even though the first generation ROG Ally had room for a larger battery, the company opted for a lighter construction.


ASUS senior product manager, Gabriel Meng told the media outlet that the company has added more ports for more connectivity options on the ASUS ROG Ally X.


“We think about battery and storage, graphics and memory, ports… our goal is to fit as many of those as possible into a device like this,” Meng said to The Verge.


While they did not confirm any specifications, The Verge reported that the ROG Ally X will likely have more than 16GB RAM where the current generation models caps at. The handheld gaming console will also get a longer M.2 2280 SSD slot, so customers can fit larger SSD upgrades than the M.2 2230 SSD slot on the current generation model allows. The report also stated that the improvements on the ASUS ROG Ally X will increase the cost of the device.


Meng said that the company believes in the Windows platform for a handheld gaming console, however, “We are very open-minded to looking at other solutions.” He also said that the company has had discussions with Valve, makers of the Steam Deck handheld gaming console which runs on the company’s own SteamOS platform.

First Published: May 10 2024 | 1:08 PM IST



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