Meituan (美團) cofounder Wang Xing (王興) is clambering aboard a global investment wave to create ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence (AI) bots.
Wang, who’s largely stayed out of the limelight in the past few years, said on WeChat that he would join a Series A investment round for fellow Meituan cofounder Wang Huiwen’s (王慧文) AI start-up.
The billionaire becomes the latest Chinese tech executive to throw his weight behind the quest to top OpenAI’s creation.
Photo: REUTERS
“The AI model makes me excited about the huge productivity that will be created, but also worried about its future impact on the whole world,” said Wang Xing, who rarely posts on WeChat and prefers a social media service he himself founded years ago. “Wang [Huiwen] and I have been together on the road of entrepreneurship for nearly 20 years. Since he is determined to embrace this big wave, I must support him.”
The declaration comes days after Chinese regulators said they are planning to introduce rules to govern the use of AI across a swath of industries. The introduction of regulations might be intended to ensure ChatGPT-like services hew to the Chinese Communist Party’s censorship of controversial or undesirable content online.
However, it could also be a boon to companies such as Baidu Inc (百度), providing clearer ground rules for future services.
Baidu has reaffirmed the rollout of its “Ernie Bot” conversational AI this month, while Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) has said it is working to integrate generative AI in several of its products.
Other high-profile Chinese enterprises, including brokerage China International Capital Corp (中國國際金融), are experimenting with the technology’s potential and limitations.
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