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China’s ChatGPT ambitions must overcome US trade restrictions on advanced AI chips, experts say

  • US restrictions on the export of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China could hamper domestic efforts to build a ChatGPT rival
  • Despite technological challenges, many Chinese companies expressed optimism that ChatGPT would open new business opportunities

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A response in Chinese by ChatGPT, an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI. Photo: Reuters
Lilian ZhangandAnn Caoin Shanghai
China’s drive to develop ChatGPT-like services could be hindered by US export controls that restrict the country’s access to advanced chips, a key component in artificial intelligence (AI) engines, according to Chinese experts.

Since its launch in November, San Francisco-based start-up OpenAI’s chatbot has become a global phenomenon, impressing internet users around the world with its ability to carry out humanlike conversations.

As Big Tech firms in China scramble to introduce similar technologies in the country, there are concerns that their ambitions could be constrained by a lack of AI chips that can provide the massive computing power required to support sophisticated AI models, according to some attendants at the Global AI Developer Conference in Shanghai over the weekend.

“If China wants to create its own ChatGPT, we need tens of thousands of A100 chips to provide the necessary computing power,” said Zheng Weimin, a Tsinghua University professor affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, referring to the high-performance graphic processors made by California-based chip firm Nvidia.

The US government last year announced its decision to restrict Nvidia from selling the A100 to clients in China.
The price of A100 chips has surged 50 per cent over the past two weeks amid the frenzy around ChatGPT, according to Yang Fan, co-founder and vice-president of SenseTime, a leading Chinese AI software company that has been subject to US trade sanctions since 2019.

China has yet to be able to make chips and software that can support at least “50 to 70 per cent of the computing capacity [needed to run ChatGPT]”, Yang said.

Zhang Yaling, founder and chief operating officer of Shanghai-based AI chip start-up Enflame Technology, said China is still highly reliant on Nvidia’s AI chip software ecosystem because it has yet to form its own self-sufficient, open-source system.

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