Tencent, the Chinese tech giant, is set to launch its artificial intelligence (AI) model called “Hunyuan” for business use at an annual summit. Dowson Tong, CEO of Tencent’s cloud and smart industries group, revealed the news in an exclusive interview with CNBC. The company has been testing the Hunyuan AI model internally for advertising and fintech purposes. In addition to this, Tencent is also planning to release an AI chatbot. The company is integrating the capabilities of Hunyuan with its existing products for video conferencing and social media, including the widely-used messaging and payments app WeChat.
This announcement comes shortly after Baidu unveiled several AI-powered applications following more supportive regulation. Baidu and other Chinese companies have recently received approval to release AI chatbots that can respond to queries in a conversational manner, primarily in Chinese. Tencent CEO Tong acknowledged that AI technology is still new and emphasized the need for guardrails to ensure the quality and accuracy of services, to avoid the distribution of false information.
While the Chinese government has shown support for generative AI, Chinese companies are also facing restrictions on obtaining advanced semiconductors due to U.S. regulations. Tong acknowledged that this constraint hinders the speed of development but expressed hope for larger GPU compute supply in the coming months.
Tencent believes that AI has potential across various industries, including tourism, finance, public services, and customer service. The company emphasizes the importance of industry-specific training for AI to generate value and suggests that customers could benefit more from leveraging open-source models and training their own models with enterprise data to meet specific needs. This approach can also contribute to data protection efforts.
Overall, Tencent’s launch of the Hunyuan AI model for business use reflects the increasing focus on AI technologies in China and highlights the company’s commitment to integrating AI capabilities into its existing products for enhanced user experiences.
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