iFlytek says its large language model outperforms ChatGPT in Chinese as AI firm vows to counter US chip curbs

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company iFlytek, one of the first major tech firms in the country to launch an alternative to US chatbot ChatGPT, said its large language model (LLM) has now outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 within a Chinese language context.

iFlytek Spark 3.0, first unveiled by the company in May and released to the general public in September after winning regulatory approval, has outperformed GPT-3.5 in six abilities including text generation, logic reasoning, maths and coding, and is set to rival GPT-4 by the first half of 2024, according to iFlytek chairman Liu Qingfeng.

iFlytek’s LLM, the fourth version since an initial release, also scores roughly the same as GPT-3.5 in performing 48 tasks within an English language context, Liu said at a company event on Tuesday in Hefei, the company’s home city in eastern Anhui province.

With ChatGPT and rival AI chatbots like Google’s Bard still not officially available in mainland China or Hong Kong, Chinese Big Tech companies such as internet search giant Baidu and e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding are pushing to develop competitive rivals to catch up with the US.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Baidu last week unveiled Ernie Bot 4, an updated version of its ChatGPT-like product first launched in March, and said it was as powerful as GPT-4. Developments in this sector follow on from Huawei Technologies’ launch of a new smartphone in September, the 5G Mate 60 Pro, which sports a powerful home-grown chip in defiance of US trade sanctions.

However, despite the advances, iFlytek’s chairman said domestic LLMs still have a “real gap” with GPT-4 and said he hoped to challenge the US-developed LLM in the first half of 2024.