Introduction

China’s biggest generative artificial intelligence (AI) developers, including Baidu and Alibaba Group Holding, have rushed to upgrade their chatbots to handle super-long texts of up to 10 million Chinese characters. The move follows Google, which in February unveiled the latest version of its Gemini large language model (LLM) that achieves a long “context window,” the maximum amount of text an LLM can consider when generating a response of up to 1 million tokens, or roughly 700,000 English words.

Baidu’s Upgrade

According to a report by Chinese media Chinastarmarket. cn on Friday, Baidu will launch a new version of its Ernie Bot in April that can process up to 5 million Chinese characters for free. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This upgrade comes after Google’s Gemini LLM update, which was only made available to a limited group of developers and enterprise customers due to its high computational demands.

Alibaba’s Move

Alibaba said last week that its Tongyi Qianwen chatbot, now able to handle texts comprising around 10 million Chinese characters, would be available for all users free of charge. The company owns the South China Morning Post. This Tongyi Qianwen chatbot update lets users input extremely long texts and receive appropriate responses, enhancing the chatbot’s functionality.

Moonshot AI’s Update

Alibaba-backed generative AI start-up Moonshot AI announced a major update of its Kimi chatbot that can now handle up to 2 million Chinese characters in a single prompt. The new feature is currently in beta testing and is limited to invited users before a wider roll-out. Moonshot AI is one of the most watched AI start-ups in the country, having raised the largest amount by a Chinese AI company since OpenAI’s ChatGPT was released in late 2022, with more than US$1 billion in a round last month led by Alibaba and venture capital firm HongShan, formerly the China unit of Sequoia Capital.

Our Say

The rush to expand context windows reflects the eagerness of Chinese AI giants to catch up with Western tech leaders. Baidu and Alibaba were among the first in China to launch their own chatbots four and five months after ChatGPT, respectively.

Upgrading Alibaba and Baidu’s chatbots to handle longer texts is a game-changer in artificial intelligence. This move showcases the companies’ commitment to innovation and highlights the immense potential of AI technology. As we look towards the future, imagining the endless possibilities that AI chatbots hold for enhancing user experiences and driving technological advancements is exciting.

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