China’s SenseTime Group Inc. recently demonstrated its suite of newfound Artificial Intelligence technology services. These services are incredibly powerful, utilizing vast troves of data and deep computing power and for chatbot users, included a new AI-based challenger to the popular ChatGPT.
Xu Li, Chief Executive Officer of SenseTime, took the stage to demonstrate and introduce SenseChat, a user-facing chatbot. Through multiple rounds of questions and responses, the bot was able to capture a story of a cat catching fish. The power of SenseChat was further highlighted as it was able to help with mundane tasks of writing code, understanding and responding to questions in both English and Chinese.
SenseTime also revealed their image processing tool ‘Miaohua’ which produces 3D graphics in seconds, as well as ‘Ruying’, a product that models the movements of a human to animate a digital form in a video. Most exciting is their AI model, SenseNova, which can provide a “supermarket of AI big models” for third-party clients. The AI model can also check and translate code for accuracy.
SenseTime is far from alone in the race to create generative AI since OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Microsoft has even pledged a $10 billion investment towards the US startup. Similarly, Google, Baidu and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. have all created AI services ranging from poetry to art.
However, there are still doubts on whether Chinese companies have secure access to the high-end technology needed to develop these large-scale AI models. Even SenseTime itself is operating under US sanctions, which inhibits its access to capital, components, and more. Additionally, the Biden administration implemented restrictions on the sale of AI accelerator chips to Chinese customers, which is a critical component in the development of any generative model.
At the time of its initial public offering, SenseTime was the largest AI software firm in Asia with an 11% market share. Accordingly, its debut was highly anticipated and its stocks rose as much as 23%. Furthermore, following news of the April 10th event, its stocks rose another 25%. Despite these robust numbers, SenseTime is still more than 10% lower compared to the initial debut.
The company has used its technology in many different contexts, ranging from police work to film product placement and even creating AR scenes in video games. In 2022, the Chinese economy experienced a major slowdown and as a result, SenseTime’s revenue significantly reduced.
To re-ignite growth and excitement, AI development is key. As such, major tech firms are integrating generative AI across their respective services. The Chinese government is also introducing regulations to govern the use of AI across industries. Although it establishes the Communist Party’s rigid ban on undesirable content, it can provide clarity and certainty to companies like Baidu and SenseTime.
The person mentioned in this article is Xu Li, the Chief Executive Officer of SenseTime. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and took the stage to demonstrate and introduce SenseChat, a user-facing chatbot. Xu is credited with bringing SenseTime from its founding to an Initial Public Offering and was even briefly one of the wealthiest people in the world.
The company mentioned in this article is SenseTime, a Shanghai-based computer vision leader. Founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology alum Tang Xiao’ou, it is backed by both Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and US sanctions. Furthermore, it is the most highly anticipated debut of 2021. The company is in the global race to develop generative AI, rivaling giants such as OpenAI, as well as others such as Google and Baidu. It hopes to be the leader in large-scale AI models and is investing in the technology appropriately.
