The popularity of the ChatGPT chatbot is troubling China. They don't want to be left behind to make the Bamboo Curtain Country version of ChatGPT. Can?
The use of ChatGPT developed by OpenAI has recently become a hot topic of discussion in various countries, including China. The technology industry and various Chinese business communities are racing to develop similar chatbots. Baidu, for example, is developing Ernie Bot aka Wenxin Yiyan.
The limited availability of language models in Mandarin and limited internet access is one of them. Reporting from Technode, Wednesday (20/2/2023) there are several reasons that prompted China to want to create its own chatbot, according to John Zhang, CEO of StarBitech.
"The first reason is the unavailability of ChatGPT in China, so we have to develop it ourselves to meet domestic needs," said Zhang.
Second, he said, the limited use of language models that use Mandarin. Third, data security, China requires that all data is stored in the country of origin but the absence of an OpenAI team in China makes it difficult to regulate data storage and repair.
"In the short term, Chinese chatbots are still difficult to compete with," he said.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT received investment funds from Microsoft and chip materials from Nvidia. China's difficulties are due to the fact that the majority of large-scale investments there focus on the non-internet application sector.
However, for the long term, Chinese chatbots will be more influential in the future, seeing technological advances in China and qualified human resources.
The massive level of digitization produces abundant data that makes the industrial chain well connected, making big data not a problem for China.
So, what should Chinese chatbots do in the future, especially regarding regulations and applications? The chatbot must understand commands in Chinese, the chatbot must have knowledge of Chinese culture, history, style and expression.
The chatbot must also adopt the customs and needs of the Chinese people such as differences in payment methods.
"And the Chinese chatbot must be equipped with applicable regulations and laws," he concluded.