The Chinese leader artificial intelligence (AI) startups are looking to seize new opportunities in their field, following the preview of a new advanced series of large language models (LLM) – the technology supporting generative AI services – by ChatGPT Creator OpenAIaccording to the leaders of Alibaba Cloud‘s Apsara Conference In Hangzhou.
OpenAI o1previewed earlier this month by the Microsoft– a Microsoft-backed company, represents a pre-trained so-called generative transformer model, designed “to reason about complex tasks and solve more difficult problems than previous models in science, coding and mathematics,” according to the San Francisco-based company.
“(OpenAI o1) is indeed of great importance,” Yang Zhilinfounder of Moonshot AIAlibaba Cloud is the backbone of digital technology, Alibaba said Thursday at the main forum of the three-day conference, which runs through Saturday. Alibaba Holding Groupowner of the South China Morning Post.
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“The most important question here is whether you can achieve further scaling through reinforcement learning, which completely increases the upper limit of AI,” Yang said, referring to the so-called scaling law of how an LLM’s performance improves as its size and training data increase.
Yang Zhilin, founder and CEO of Moonshot AI. Photo: Weibo alt=Yang Zhilin, founder and CEO of Moonshot AI. Photo: Weibo>
The 31-year-old founder of Moonshot AI expects OpenAI o1 to “drive changes in the structure of many industries and create new opportunities for startups.”
According to an update from OpenAI this week, the new models have been trained “to spend more time thinking about problems before responding, much like a person would.”
Through training, he can “learn to refine his thought process, try different strategies and recognize his mistakes,” the American company explained.
“If (a company) reaches a certain threshold of computing power, it can achieve fundamental innovations in algorithms and even breakthroughs in fundamental models,” Yang said.
This development, Yang said earlier this weekrepresents a paradigm shift as LLM developers, who have been lacking organic data to train their models, are now turning to a technique known as reinforcement learning to recreate thought processes and, in turn, generate more data.
Echoing this view, an AI startup Not funfounder and CEO of, Jiang Daxinsaid that reinforcement learning “has been generalized to a higher level” by OpenAI o1.
Jiang said OpenAI o1 is expected to drive innovation opportunities in the development of fundamental AI models and applications.
An industry executive addresses the audience at the main forum of the three-day Apsara Conference of Alibaba Cloud in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, Sept. 19, 2024. Photo: Xinhua alt=An industry executive addresses the audience at the main forum of the three-day Apsara Conference of Alibaba Cloud in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, Sept. 19, 2024. Photo: Xinhua>
He stressed, however, that computing power remains a problem for start-ups. US Trade Sanctions restrict the availability of advanced technologies semiconductorslike those of Nvidiafor Chinese companies’ AI development projects.
“The computing power required is not negligible, especially if you want a generalized reasoning model,” Jiang said. “But if the goal we are pursuing is artificial general intelligence (AGI), we will stick to it, no matter the cost.”
While existing AI technologies all operate within a set of predetermined parameters, AGI covers the development of systems with autonomous mastery, some degree of self-understanding, and the ability to learn new skills.
No more than 10 AI startups – including the so-called four “AI Tigers” – In China, investments in reinforcement learning will be able to double, according to a report Baichuan AI a conference staff member who declined to be named.
These AI tigers – Moonshot AI, Baichuan AI, AI Zhipu And MiniMax – are all focused on the development of the LLM.
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