AI pioneer Kai-fu Lee aims to bring China its CHATGPT moment

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 capitalize 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 has 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

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.

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,