Chinese entrepreneurs express awe and fear of OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video generator, as US sanctions weigh on AI race

“I’d like to compare this to the Newton moment of AI development,” Yin said.

Chinese smartphone vendors from Meizu to Oppo step up AI integration in devices

Zhou estimated that China’s best large language models (LLMs), the tech that powers AI tools like ChatGPT, “have neared the level of GPT-3.5, but there is still a 1.5-year gap from GPT-4”. OpenAI launched GPT-4, its text generation model, in March 2023.

Some Chinese entrepreneurs say they do not want to overstate Sora’s capabilities.

“Given the demo videos provided by Sora, it hasn’t achieved great breakthroughs in understanding [the world],” said Fang Han, CEO of game developer and publisher Kunlun Tech, in an interview with government-run Shang Securities News.

“The gap between Sora and China’s home-developed text-to-video tools isn’t as big as in the LLM sector,” he added.

The market sees opportunity in generative AI development. The fast-growing LLM and generative AI sector “will provide a strong impetus to the growth of computing power in China and the world”, Ping An Securities said in a report published on Monday. The finance giant added that industries including computing power, algorithms and cybersecurity will all benefit.

However, Ping An warned that there may be “supply chain risks” if the US continues to restrict chip exports to China. The sanctions “may accelerate the maturity of the domestic AI chip industry”, but “home-grown alternatives may fall short of expectations”, the report said.

BGI’s Yin also questioned whether China has enough time to catch up given “the unfavourable background of decoupling and supply chain disruptions”.

Washington has blocked Chinese companies from accessing the world’s most advanced semiconductor tools through escalating restrictions on exports of such products that use US-origin technology. In October, the US again tightened those restrictions, blocking the mainland’s access to graphics processing units (GPUs) that Nvidia had specifically designed for Chinese clients in response to earlier curbs.

As such, the US chip giant has developed three new data centre GPUs – the H20, L20 and L2. Nevertheless, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has warned that Washington will take a dim view of any workaround solutions targeted at the mainland.