Baidu’s $145M AI Fund Suggests China Pushing AI Independence

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The decoupling of the US and China is causing a split in the technological landscape between the two largest economies, shaping the development of a hot field: generative AI, which transforms text into various forms of content such as prose, images and video. ing.

China has pursued its own large-scale language model consistent with OpenAI’s GPT model to reduce its reliance on the US technology base. But unlike the United States, some of the most advanced AI efforts are at established internet giants such as Baidu.

The search engine and self-driving giant launched the equivalent of ChatGPT in March. The 23-year-old company now wants to invest in other AI startups as well. The company is looking to invest in other AI startups. At the JP Morgan summit in China this week, Baidu co-founder and CEO Robin Li announced a 1 billion yuan ($145 million) investment to support generative AI companies. announced the launch of the fund.

This fund can be compared to the OpenAI Startup Fund which, as my colleague Connie pointed out, started with $100 million and eventually grew to $175 million. The fund will invest up to 10 million yuan (about $1.4 million) in the project. Considering the size of the check, the fund is clearly targeting early-stage AI applications, but China’s generative AI startups are not yet widespread and most investments are in the seed and early stages. Given the concentration, this is not surprising.

Additionally, Baidu plans to use the funding to expand adoption of its own large-scale language model, Ernie Bot. “American developers are building new applications based on ChatGPT or other language models.In China, using Ernie as a foundation, he will increase the number of developers building AI applications. ” he said Li.

In that sense, the fund appears to be looking for applications of AI rather than developers of the foundation layer of AI. The fund has no shortage of pitches. Over the years, Chinese startups have become known for their ingenuity in devising novel business models ranging from live streaming, live commerce to short videos. Li predicted that in the age of generative AI, Chinese companies will once again lead the way in finding commercial applications for AI.

“I am very bullish on China’s AI development. Over the past decades, China has warmly embraced new technologies. We have developed many very innovative applications such as .Many of them are popular and useful.The same trend is happening in the age of AI.Technology offers a myriad of possibilities and we They are good at capturing and building applications.”

But the relevant question is whether the base level, China’s own large-scale language model, is robust enough to support the range of real-world scenarios expected of China. China wants homegrown LLMs to avoid exposure to US sanctions that cut off key technology supplies, as seen in the semiconductor industry. Besides Baidu, Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent have also developed their own large-scale language models.