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Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com unveils own large language model, ChatRhino, to drive increased adoption of AI for industrial use

  • JD.com says its ChatRhino LLM offers targeted solutions across a range of industries, from retail and logistics to finance and healthcare
  • ChatRhino was described by JD.com as an AI model that combines 70 per cent general data with 30 per cent native intelligent supply chain data

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JD.com’s foray into artificial intelligence models reflects the Chinese tech industry’s strong interest to close the gap with the West in building ChatGPT-like services. Photo: Shutterstock
Ben Jiangin Beijing
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has launched its own large language model (LLM) – representing the technology used to train chatbots like ChatGPT – that is expected to escalate efforts by the country’s Big Tech companies to bring artificial intelligence (AI) into various industrial applications.
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The value of LLMs “will be realised through industrial applications”, said Sandy Xu Ran, who was named JD.com’s new chief executive in May, at the unveiling of the company’s ChatRhino LLM on Thursday during its annual JD Discovery tech summit in Beijing.

ChatRhino, called Yanxi in Chinese, was described at the summit as an AI model that combines 70 per cent general data with 30 per cent native intelligent supply chain data. It purportedly offers targeted solutions across a range of industries, from retail and logistics to finance and healthcare.

LLMs are deep-learning AI algorithms that can recognise, summarise, translate, predict and generate content using very large data sets.

JD.com chief executive Sandy Xu Ran speaks at the e-commerce giant’s annual JD Discovery tech summit in Beijing on July 13, 2023. Photo: Weibo
JD.com chief executive Sandy Xu Ran speaks at the e-commerce giant’s annual JD Discovery tech summit in Beijing on July 13, 2023. Photo: Weibo

“JD’s large model evolution aligns with our relentless pursuit of technology,” Xu said at the tech summit. She indicated that this move “signifies our dedication to leveraging technology to benefit industries and society as a whole”.

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The Beijing-based company’s foray into AI models reflects the Chinese tech industry’s strong interest to close the gap with the West in building ChatGPT-like services, as the government sets out to implement a national standard for LLMs in line with efforts to regulate AI.
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