China’s artificial intelligence industrial chains, including computing power, cloud servers and data centers, are expected to usher in unprecedented development opportunities amid a worldwide frenzy around Sora, a new text-to-video AI model developed by U.S.-based OpenAI, creator of chatbot ChatGPT. Experts said Chinese tech enterprises should pool more resources into the basic research of crucial technologies, improve independent innovation capacities and strengthen exchanges and cooperation with companies both at home and abroad so as to build an open, collaborative and innovative AI industrial ecosystem. Moreover, the multimodal large language model (LLM), which possesses the ability to generate high-resolution video clips based on given text prompts, is an undeniable future development direction for generative AI technology, and will inject strong impetus into a new round of industrial development, said industry observers.
“The launch of Sora will have a profound impact on the development of China’s AI industrial chain, and this innovative text-to-video model is expected to inject new vitality into the field of content creation and trigger an industrial revolution,” said Zhu Keli, Director of the China Institute of New Economy. He added that this presents both a challenge and a rare opportunity for China as the country has immense data resources and broad application prospects, which lays a solid foundation for the commercialization of cutting-edge technologies such as Sora.
“With the wide application of AI technology, demand for infrastructure such as computing power, servers and chips will grow exponentially, which will significantly promote the coordinated development of upstream and downstream segments of China’s AI industrial chain,” he said. Zhu added that Chinese AI companies should step up investment in the R&D of computing power and chips, try to achieve breakthroughs in key technologies, as well as expand the applications of video generation models in more segments. Computing power, which serves as a core productive force in the digital economy era, has become an important engine driving China’s economic growth and unleashing the potential of data as a factor of production. Chinese enterprises have ramped up efforts to build computing infrastructure, such as servers, storage and data centers, and bolster the development of AI by offering computing power support and guarantees. Supercomputer manufacturer Dawning Information Industry Co, also known as Sugon, has invested heavily in underlying computing power, frameworks, algorithms and applications, and participates in China’s integrated computing power service platform to bolster the industrial use of AI models. Cao Zhennan, Vice President of Sugon, said the training of AI models necessitates massive requirements for computing resources, which will give a big boost to the development of China’s computing power industry.
As AI-powered large language models are driving a revolution in the cloud computing industry, more efforts are needed to rebuild the infrastructure system of LLMs and bolster the development of AI-native applications, said Hou Zhenyu, Vice President of Chinese search company Baidu. It will offer the LLM-centered cloud infrastructure to promote the commercial use of AI technology, Hou said, adding that intelligent computing abilities will provide solid support for the operation of AI applications. According to Baidu AI Cloud, Baidu’s cloud computing unit, the innovative integration of cloud computing with AI will lower the threshold for enterprises to acquire and use AI technology.
As artificial general intelligence (AGI) takes the world by storm, efforts are needed in China to draft a national plan to boost its development, the latest tech frontier that is a key part of new quality productive forces. AGI refers to AI’s versatility in doing multiple tasks such as writing essays, checking program bugs and making business plans. This differentiates it from previous narrow AI projects that excel in only one area. The emergence of AI chatbot ChatGPT and the text-to-video generation tool Sora triggered widespread discussion regarding the rapid development of AGI. Highlighting global competition in the sector, NPC Deputy Liu Qingfeng and Chairman of Chinese AI company iFlytek, said there is a need “to address the gaps and focus on the ‘main battlefield’ of large language models. We must concentrate national resources to catch up rapidly while systematically constructing the ecosystem and applications for AGI”. With the emergence of generative AI technology, global competition has intensified and China lags behind the U.S. in key aspects, Liu said. He added that the plan should involve key areas such as building a powerful computing power ecosystem, high-quality data sharing, scientific evaluation standards, forward-looking technological R&D, talent cultivation, legal frameworks and ethical considerations. According to International Data Corp (IDC) the scale of China’s AI market is expected to reach USD26.44 billion in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of over 20% between 2021 and 2026, the China Daily reports.
