The AI Revolution: How Generative Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Industries

The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is set to transform industries and spearhead a new round of industrial transformation and upgrade. Chinese tech companies are seeking to increase investment, boost computing power, and gather more high-quality data to gain an edge in the global AI race.

AI development

Generative AI refers to computer algorithms trained with huge amounts of data capable of generating content such as images, text, audio, and video in a human-like fashion. The recent launch of GPT-4o, the latest large language model (LLM) developed by OpenAI, has caused a global sensation. The new flagship generative AI model surpasses the company’s existing models in visual and audio understanding, making the interaction between humans and machines much more natural and easier.

“Generative AI will add between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion in annual value to the global economy, enhancing all sectors of industry.” - McKinsey & Co

Industry insiders said the multimodal LLMs, which possess the abilities to process and generate content across multiple modalities, including text, images, audio, and video, will lead the way for the further development of the generative AI industry, with significant potential for application in various industries like finance, retail, healthcare, and intelligent manufacturing.

AI applications

Major Chinese tech heavyweights, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Baidu Inc, iFlytek, and Tencent Holdings Ltd, are scrambling to roll out their own AI-powered LLMs and bolster the commercial use of generative AI technology. Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, unveiled Tongyi Qianwen 2.5, the latest version of its LLM, saying its capabilities have surpassed those of OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo model.

Alibaba’s LLM

The Tongyi Qianwen 2.5 achieved a full upgrade with improved performance in reasoning, code comprehension, and textual understanding compared with the previous version. In the context of Chinese language, the new model has caught up with the GPT-4 model in terms of text understanding and generation, knowledge quiz, dialogues, and life advice.

Baidu’s Ernie Bot

Baidu said in April its LLM and ChatGPT-like chatbot Ernie Bot had garnered more than 200 million users since its debut in March 2023, while more than 85,000 enterprise clients had used Baidu’s enterprise-level LLM platform Qianfan to create 190,000 AI applications.

The rapid development of generative AI technology is expected to have a significant impact on various industries, driving growth and innovation. As the technology continues to advance, we can expect to see even more exciting applications and developments in the future.

AI future