China becoming close rival of ChatGPT: Microsoft President

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Microsoft President Brad Smith on Saturday warned that Chinese research organisations and companies will emerge as major rivals of ChatGPT, according to a report in Nikkei Asia.

The tech giant is the biggest investor in OpenAI, the developer of the AI-powered chatbot.

Smith said China will not be far behind as competition heats up among US technology giants such as Amazon and Google in the development of generative AI, according to Nikkei Asia.

"We see three at the absolute forefront," Smith said in an interview in Tokyo with Nikkei Asia. One is Open AI with Microsoft, the second is Google, and "the third is the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence. "

"Who's ahead and who's behind can change a bit from one part of the year to another, but one thing has been absolutely constant: the gap is almost always measured in months, not years," Smith said, calling the race to innovate "enormously competitive."

According to Nikkei Asia, Generative AI -- the technology behind ChatGPT -- is capable of producing text and images at near-human levels of sophistication. The technology has excited the world with its potential in fields from business and the arts to education and health care, but it has also sparked fears that it could displace workers by automating many jobs, it added. Other concerns include its potential for spreading misinformation, infringing on copyrights, compromising privacy and leaking sensitive information.

Smith argues that the solution to such concerns is not to stop innovation but rather to use and improve on existing products. Like other technologies, AI can be a tool as well as a weapon, he said, citing cyber attacks as an example.

"We should absolutely assume, and even expect, that certain nation states will