China’s 01.AI Launches Free Productivity Assistant, Competes Microsoft's Copilot
The Chinese startup, 01.AI, founded by Kai-Fu Lee introduces Wanzhi, a free productivity assistant designed for the Chinese market.
This consumer app has similar functionalities to Microsoft Corp.’s Office 365 Copilot. Wanzhi can help users create spreadsheets, documents, as well as slide presentations more efficiently. It also can analyze financial reports, take meeting minutes, and provide summaries for large books.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Lee stated that for China to enter the AI chatbots race and accelerate interest, adoption, and investment, it needs to have its own ChatGPT breakthrough, which is banned in the country.
While U.S. big tech companies, such as OpenAI, Meta Platforms Inc. are in the lead of the development of generative AI, Chinese firms are trying hard to gain a position. Other than 01.AI, key Chinese tech giants, like Baidu Inc. and ByteDance Ltd are significantly investing in the development of their own AI models and chatbot services.
In parallel, Beijing has also provided the policy and financial support required to further accelerate AI development within the country.
Lee became the CEO of 01.AI last year, and within eight months the company has reached a valuation of $1 billion. The open-source AI model developed by the company has outperformed its Silicon Valley competitors in many key measures.
In addition to its assistant app, the Chinese startup is also unveiling its own large language model (LLM) called Yi-Large customized for enterprise applications.
Yi-large will be available for developers at competitive prices. The Application Programming Interface (API) of the model will cost $2.50 for 1 million input tokens and $12 for 1 million output tokens, which makes it more affordable than OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo, according to Lee.
01.AI has a large supply of semiconductors, including Nvidia’s H100, which are highly important for the training of leading AI services. Further, the company has optimized its hardware and software processes to enhance efficiency and cost effectiveness.
From his part, the CEO of the Chinese startup believes that the year 2024 will witness a major surge in AI development in the country.
01.AI is currently securing the second part of $250 million of funding and intends to start seeking additional investors by the end of the year. As for the app, the news revealed that it will be available in both Chinese and English.
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