China's Zhipu AI to launch Sora competitor in 2024
Chinese artificial intelligence start-up, Zhipu AI, is set to introduce its own version of OpenAI's text-to-video service, Sora. The Beijing-based company began developing its large language model (LLM) for text-to-video, before OpenAI unveiled Sora in February. According to TMTPost, the firm aims to release "high-quality text-to-video tools" as soon as possible this year, due to increasing demands from various sectors like film and video game production.
Chinese firms race to match global AI innovations
The race among Chinese firms to keep pace with leading global generative AI entities has intensified. This surge in competition follows the introduction of the ChatGPT conversational bot by OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, in late 2022 and Sora in February this year. Last week, Beijing start-up Shengshu Technology and Tsinghua University jointly launched Vidu, a text-to-video tool seen as China's most promising contender against Sora.
Zhipu AI: A pioneer in China's AI development
Zhipu AI was founded in 2019 by Tsinghua University computer science graduates. It was one of the first Chinese firms to venture into LLM development. The company is recognized as one of China's "four new AI tigers." It has attracted investment from venture capital firms and local tech giants including Tencent Holdings, Xiaomi, Meituan, and Alibaba Group. In 2023, Zhipu secured CNY 2.5 billion (around $346 million) from investors.
Zhipu AI's technology ranks among top domestic models
A recent evaluation by Tsinghua University placed Zhipu AI's GLM-4 among the top two domestic AI models. This suggests that the start-up's technology is progressively closing the gap with the world's leading models in terms of overall performance. Despite OpenAI's services not being officially accessible in China, nearly 200 LLMs have emerged in the country according to recent government data.
