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China AI chip market finds expansion paths despite US export restrictions

Coin Telegraph
China AI chip market finds expansion paths despite US export restrictions
AMD

The U.S. imposed export restrictions of high-level AI chips to China last October, though Chinese companies are now finding new options to develop their technology.

The Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) chip market has been subject to ongoing export restrictions which imposed by the United States from October 2022, which prohibited the sale of certain U.S. products to China. 

The U.S. initially blocked the export of the highest level of chips produced by companies like Nvidia and AMD. Under the initial October controls the companies were still able to export other models to China, such as Nvidia’s A800 and H800.

One year later on Oct. 17, the U.S. government announced an expansion of controls to “reinforce” the previous ones, which meant that all chip models would be embargoed from the Chinese market.

One of Nvidia's top gaming chips, the L40S chip is also affected by the latest export restrictions, which were immediately effective on Oct. 24.

However, on Nov. 9 the local Chinese media outlet STAR Market Daily reported that Nvidia has plans to release three new chips for China. The report cited people familiar with the matter and said the chips are called the HGX H20, L20 PCIe and L2 PCIe.

Nvidia reportedly could make the announcement about the new chips as early as Nov. 16. Cointelegraph has reached out to Nvidia for comment but hasn't yet received a response.

According to a quarterly report from Nvidia earlier this year, China is one of its largest markets, along with Taiwan and the U.S.

Related: Chinese president calls for unity on AI challenges and cyber development

Additionally, Chinese companies have been turning to domestic companies to fulfill their needs for AI chips. 

On Nov. 7, Reuters reported that the Chinese technology company Baidu had ordered AI chips from Huawei in August of this year.

According to the report, Baidu ordered 1,600 of Huawei’s 910B Ascend AI chips for 200 servers. Huawei’s 910B chips are supposed to be an alternative to Nvidia’s A100.

The report said that by October, Huawei delivered more than 60% of Baidu’s chip order, which is roughly 1,000 chips and has a total value of approx. 450 million yuan ($61.83 million). The remaining chips are expected by the end of the year.

Baidu is one of China’s leading AI companies. In October it released its Ernie 4.0 AI system, which it says has an overall performance “on par with ChatGPT.”

Over the summer the Biden Administration reportedly said it is even considering adding restrictions on China’s access to cloud computing services.

Last week, United States Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez reiterated that fear to reporters at an event in Tokyo, particularly highlighting concerns over usage for military purposes.

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Baidu unveils Ernie 4.0 AI system, says overall performance ‘on par with ChatGPT’

Coin Telegraph
Baidu unveils Ernie 4.0 AI system, says overall performance ‘on par with ChatGPT’
Baidu

The Chinese megacorporation claims its newest model rivals OpenAI’s popular model in generating text, images, and video.

Baidu, one of China’s largest technology companies, released version 4.0 of its popular “Ernie” artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) chatbot.

According to an English language translation provided by Baidu, embedded in an X post alongside the usual Google Translate subtitles, CEO Robin Li claimed the updated model “stands on par with GPT-4 in terms of overall performance.”

Robin Li described the updated capabilities of the new Ernie model through four distinct verticals: understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory.

Under the category of “understanding,” Baidu claims overall improvement in human-computer interaction. “ERNIE Bot can now accurately interpret 'out-of-order statements, vague expressions, and implied meanings' in text,” reads one post in the announcement thread.

This is particularly noteworthy, as Ernie has reportedly been trained in both Chinese languages and English — teaching models to understand colloquial or conversational prompts has, traditionally, been a challenging task for LLM engineers.

Related: Biden considers tightening AI chip controls to China via third parties

In contrast to previous versions, Ernie 4.0 also appears to have significantly improved capabilities in both quality and speed when it comes to generating images, video, and coherent copy. “With just one image and a few prompts,” reads another post in the thread, “we created 1 video ad, 5 ad copies, and 1 poster in just 3 minutes. ERNIE Bot transforms a single person into a marketing team.”

In the area of “reasoning,” CEO Robin Li demonstrated the models’ advanced analytical problem solving capabilities by posing a complex question. Similar LLM models of the past have struggled with problems which require any form of reasoning. In the demonstration, Ernie provides both text and imagery as well as a succinct and demonstrably correct answer.

The final leg of the 4.0 update involved expanding Ernie’s so-called “memory.” To the best of our knowledge, there’s no scientific evidence that LLMs or any AI system can “reason” or have any form of actual “memory,” but analogous to those terms would be a model’s ability to process problems and recall prompts and outputs from previous sessions.

According to Robin Li, Ernie’s “memory” is about as good as ChatGPT’s. “Even after five rounds of conversation and writing thousands of words, ERNIE Bot can remember previously generated content.”

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China’s Baidu and other tech companies release ChatGPT-like AI chatbots

Coin Telegraph
China’s Baidu and other tech companies release ChatGPT-like AI chatbots
Baidu

Multiple Chinese tech companies launched their own ChatGPT-like AI chatbots for mass market use two weeks after China’s AI regulations came into force, which requires prior government approval.

Four China-based tech companies launched their own artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on Aug. 30 for public use after receiving approval from the Chinese government.

Baidu, Baichuan Intelligent Technology, SenseTime and Zhipu AI all launched their chatbots less than two weeks after the government’s official AI legislation was enacted on Aug. 15, which requires government approval prior to launching AI-based products available in the mass market.

In order to receive approval, companies must submit security assessments and other proof of meeting set standards. There are 24 guidelines, which include mandatory labels for artificially created content and holding service providers accountable for anything created through their platform.

According to local Chinese media reports, 11 additional firms have received government approval for AI products, including the owners of TikTok, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings.

Related: Germany proposes screening Chinese investment in AI and related sectors: Report

Baidu likened its new chatbot, Ernie Bot, to the popular ChatGPT application created by Microsoft-backed OpenAI.

According to a local media report, Baidu CEO Robin Li said that by making Ernie Bot available to hundreds of millions of internet users:

“Baidu will collect massive valuable real-world human feedback.”

OpenAI’s chatbot is unavailable in China due to it being geo-blocked in the country. The government reportedly forced local social media platforms, such as WeChat and Weibo, to prevent access to the platform.

After major anticipation of a publicly available AI chatbot like ChatGPT, Baidu posted on social media that less than 12 hours after its release, the app had risen to the No. 1 spot on the Apple Store’s free app rankings in China.

Prior to the regulations set in place by the government, companies could only conduct public tests of their AI products on a small scale. Under the new rules, companies have widened their tests with more features enabled.

On Aug. 3, the Chinese tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba released two open-sourced AI models to rival Meta’s Llama 2.

Its two large language models (LLMs) called Qwen-7B and Qwen-7B-Chat each have 7 billion parameters and are said to be smaller versions of the Tongyi Qiawen released in April.

Although not chatbots, like Ernie Bot or ChatGPT, these developments continue to show signs of China’s intention to rival developments in AI coming out of the United States.

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Report: Nearly 13,000 Chinese Social Media Accounts Promoting Virtual Currency Closed

Bitcoin.com
Report: Nearly 13,000 Chinese Social Media Accounts Promoting Virtual Currency Closed
Baidu
Report: Nearly 13,000 Chinese Social Media Accounts Promoting Virtual Currency ClosedNearly 13,000 Chinese social media accounts that allegedly promoted virtual currency investments were closed, the Cyberspace Administration of China recently revealed. In addition, some 51,000 social media posts with content relating to the marketing or promotion of investments in virtual currencies were removed. 105 Websites Shut Down A Chinese regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China […]
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Chinese Indexes Company Launches Hang Seng Metaverse Index

Bitcoin.com
Chinese Indexes Company Launches Hang Seng Metaverse Index
Baidu
Chinese Indexes Company Launches Hang Seng Metaverse IndexA Chinese indexes company, Hang Seng Indexes, has launched a new index which tracks the performance of metaverse-related companies in mainland China. The index is calculated and disseminated in real-time at two-second intervals, the company said. Rising Popularity of the Metaverse Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited, an entity that manages and compiles the Hang Seng […]
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Baidu metaverse app would take 6 years for a full launch, VP says

Coin Telegraph
Baidu metaverse app would take 6 years for a full launch, VP says
Baidu

Baidu’s metaverse app will not support digital currencies or NFTs despite its focus on digital infrastructure, VP said.

The Chinese internet giant Baidu doesn’t expect to fully launch its XiRang metaverse app soon despite the app’s initial would debut on Monday, according to a senior executive.

Baidu vice president Ma Jie believes that it is still “negative six” years to full XiRang’s launch, CNBC reported on Thursday. He noted that the development of the app started in December 2020.

Ma spoke of “Create 2021,” Baidu’s upcoming annual developers’ event, which the company promotes as the first Chinese conference to be hosted in a metaverse space through XiRang. The app will reportedly handle up to 100,000 virtual members interacting with each other using metaverse avatars at the three-day conference starting on Monday.

The exec noted that Baidu intends to create an open-source platform targeting metaverse developers, providing a building infrastructure in the virtual world.

Despite focusing on digital infrastructure, Baidu's metaverse app will not support digital currencies or trading assets related to virtual property, Ma said. That is despite XiRang using underlying technologies that are similar to blockchain, he added. The plan goes in line with China's renewed ban on cryptocurrencies announced in September 2021.

XiRang's metaverse environment. Source: Pandaily 

One of the biggest internet search engine companies in China, Baidu officially joined the metaverse industry by applying for a trademark "metapp" in October 2021. The firm then released its first metaverse app XiRang, translated as the "Land of Hope," with some of the first XiRang's virtual apparently becoming available for users as of early November.

Related: Chinese companies embark on a metaverse trademark race

Baidu is not the only company in China to aggressively develop metaverse technology as local giants like Tencent and Alibaba have been working on their metaverse-related projects. In early November, ​​the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a think tank affiliated with China’s Ministry of State Security, officially warned about national security risks of the Metaverse, citing potential political and social issues.

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Shanghai Man: Bitcoin interest drops in China amid crackdown on social media and miners

Coin Telegraph
Shanghai Man: Bitcoin interest drops in China amid crackdown on social media and miners
Baidu

Xinjiang crypto miners forced to shut down, Antpool hash rates drop by 30%, and Baidu and Weibo try to scrub crypto players from their platforms.

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations.

This week, following a tumultuous few weeks of regulation, the Bitcoin world’s focus shifted to Miami and Latin America. Searches for Bitcoin on China’s most popular social media app WeChat stabilized between 1-3 million per day, a stark difference from the peaks of over 10 million that were seen in late May.

Weibo and Baidu half pulls the plug

Baidu, China’s dominant search engine, restricted searches for exchanges Binance, Huobi, and OKEx early in the week. Typically, large internet companies work under the watchful eye of government and party officials, making this move somewhat expected. Filtering out keywords isn’t always the most effective solution, as searches for “Binance App Download” would still take users to the requested link. It’s worth pointing out that the government has limited authority in these cases since most of these big exchanges, particularly Binance, are registered in other countries and have a limited physical presence in China.

More effective was the silencing of cryptocurrency influencer accounts on micro-blogging platform Weibo. According to reports in Cointelegraph, at least a dozen accounts were suspended with a message that they had violated relevant laws and guidelines. This can have a much more sobering impact on the Chinese cryptocurrency community as influencers are often a primary source of information, especially for users who don’t access traditional western social media platforms.

Western province slams door on miners

On June 9, a district government in western Xinjiang issued a "notice to immediately suspend virtual currency mining enterprises." The report announced that companies engaged in digital currency mining must halt production by 2PM on June 9 and report the suspension to a local reform commission. This resulted in significant drops in global hashing power, with Chinese-backed Ant Pool dropping by more than 30%. The last month has seen a bevy of regulations against mining companies as China prepares to try and meet carbon emissions goals. Miners are still scrambling to adjust to new regulations with many heading to more lenient countries like neighboring Kazakhstan.

In it for the technology

The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced it has received over 300 applications for crypto payments and exchange licenses. Singapore is a common location for Chinese companies to domicile as it is home to a thriving FinTech sector but remains close to the mainland, both in terms of geography and cultural ties. One of the companies disclosed was internet giant Alibaba. Alibaba has come under the microscope back in China for it lending practices, so it’s no surprise that Alibaba and other Chinese companies might want to diversify their financial offerings in other regulatory regions.

Accelerating the pace of change

On June 7, China’s high-ranking Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued guidelines on accelerating the application of blockchain technology in the industrial sector. It targeted 2025 as the year that blockchain should penetrate fields such as supply chain management and traceability for internationally competitive enterprises. This will be of interest to a number of public and private chains that are able to develop within the confines of the Chinese regulatory framework. Despite cryptocurrency facing strong backlash, the Chinese government hasn’t backed down from its hopes for blockchain to be a driver of economic growth in the country.

For those looking to better understand China’s ambitions in this area, government-backed BSN hosted a webinar about China’s pursuits in emerging technologies. China technology experts Winston Ma and Paul Schulte covered a number of topics including blockchain, central bank digital currencies and even some more controversial geo-political issues. Cointelegraph’s Man in Shanghai himself was on hand to moderate, keeping an unbiased eye on things.

Bank on it

On June 8, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority released a "Fintech 2025" strategy to enhance research on a central bank digital currency. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is working with the Innovation Hub of the National Bank for Settling and Clearing to bring a central bank digital currency to the retail level. This area is an interesting space to watch to determine how the e-HKD will be similar to the e-CNY, and what that means for the financial future of the region.

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