Shanghai firms test waters for generative AI models, applications
Shanghai technology firms are developing classified generative artificial intelligence applications for industries like finance, transportation and e-commerce, making it more practical and useful.
The applications transfer AI into tools to improve productivity, generate knowledge graphs and enhance management of data analysis, from just being "chat bots" for fun, industry officials said.
STAR-listed Transwarp, which offers enterprise-level big data infrastructure, kicked off its own large language models integrating database management tools on Friday. They will match the demand from classified industries covering finance and big data analysis.
"Data processing will be intelligent, multi-model and popularized in the future. Ordinary people no longer need to master complex tools to quickly process data," Sun Yuanhao, chief executive of Transwarp, said in Shanghai today.
Sun Yuanhao, chief executive of Transwarp, talks about AI development in FDTC in Shanghai.
Transwarp, a technology supplier of the Shanghai Data Exchange, has already served in finance, transportation and digital governance sectors. It has established an ecosystem covering 600 industry partners including giants like Intel and Huawei.
The generative AI technologies, including ChatGPT, will boosted classified AI applications in various industries, just like cloud computing development today, said Yu Zhonghai, chief IT analyst of the China International Capital Corporation, or CICC.
There are general AI services for the public like ChatGPT, but soon there will be more industry-specific AI models to directly boost work efficiency, like today's public clouds and specific private clouds, Yu said in the Future Data Technology Conference or FDTC, held in Shanghai today.
China's generative AI market revenue will hit about 600 billion yuan (US$85 billion) by 2025, with annual growth rate of over 30 percent. It creates a huge market potential, analysts said.
New York-listed FinVolution, which offers loans and online financial services, has adopted large language model recently in the workflow.
The generative AI technologies cover robot speech and text analysis in customer services, improving accuracy and understanding capabilities to shape better user experiences. The generative AI is also used in automatic code generation, visual material design, which will greatly improve productivity, said FinVolution.
The company, headquartered in the Pudong New Area, has served 28 million clients of loan services. In the first quarter, its global loan volume reached 43.4 billion yuan, 9.3 percent growth year on year.
It spent 130 million yuan on research in the quarter, covering techs like generative AI, as it brings "new growth engine" in future, said Finvolution CFO Xu Jiayuan.
HK-listed Weimob, which offers digital services for online stores in WeChat, is going to kick off own generative AI "very soon," Shanghai Daily learned.
During a recent information consumption event, Weimob promised to support services valued 120 million yuan covering 3,000 firms, including many small and medium-sized firms. Some services cover well-controlled livestream and even digital avatars powered by AI.
