2024 AI Large Model Industry Outlook: China's First Personal Information Protection AI Large Model 'Zhiyu' Assistant Released
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China's First Personal Information Protection AI Large Model 'Zhiyu' Assistant Released
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued a notice on the quality of telecommunications services in the fourth quarter of 2023 on its official website. Among the announcements, it introduced the release of China's first personal information protection AI large model, the 'Zhiyu' assistant, which provides intelligent services for APP development, operation, testing, protection, and policy interpretation. Efforts have been made to address prominent issues such as unwanted redirects triggered by 'shake-to-open' features, with 81 non-compliant APPs and SDKs publicly named and shamed, continuously improving the mobile internet service environment.
It has been learned that the 'Zhiyu' AI large model was developed by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. It serves various stakeholders in the mobile internet application ecosystem, including developers, distribution platforms, terminal manufacturers, and testing agencies, offering multimodal and diversified services such as compliance consulting, risk detection, code generation, and operational guidance, thereby establishing a new paradigm for AI-powered personal information protection.
More than a year has passed since the emergence of large models. Riding the wave of AI large models, major tech companies have rushed to launch their own large model products.
At the same time, enterprises across various industries have maintained a high level of interest in large models, with some companies from other sectors also venturing into the development of large model-related products.
Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that from January to October 2023, China's AI industry showed positive growth, with the core industry scale reaching 500 billion yuan. In terms of the number of enterprises, as of January 2024, there were 1.5718 million AI-related companies in China. From 2021 to 2023, the number of AI companies increased by 363,600, 427,100, and 529,200 respectively, with year-on-year growth rates of 87.11%, 17.47%, and 23.91%. According to the 2024-2029 China Artificial Intelligence Large Model Industry Development Analysis and Trend Forecast Report by China Research Institute:
Generative AI, represented by large models, is accelerating deep integration with various industries. The associated industrial scale has exceeded 10 trillion yuan, giving rise to substantial new digital economy formats, scenarios, and models. Among these, the commercialization of AI in smart manufacturing, energy, finance, healthcare, and education is particularly active.
During Baidu's Q4 and full-year 2023 earnings call, Robin Li, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Baidu, revealed that since its release, Baidu has continuously reduced the inference costs of the ERNIE large model, now down to 1% of the March 2023 version. Li stated that the daily calls to the ERNIE model have exceeded 50 million, a 190% quarter-on-quarter increase. In December, approximately 26,000 enterprises utilized the ERNIE model, marking a 150% quarter-on-quarter growth. Additionally, Baidu Intelligent Cloud's total revenue for Q4 reached 8.4 billion yuan, with the large model contributing about 660 million yuan in incremental revenue.
AI large models refer to machine learning models with ultra-large-scale parameters (typically in the billions) and powerful computational resources. They can process massive datasets and perform complex tasks such as natural language processing and image recognition.
The AI large model industry is a rapidly evolving field, gradually maturing alongside advancements in big data and cloud computing technologies. AI large models serve as a critical foundation for AI applications, widely used in natural language processing, computer vision, speech recognition, and other domains.
2024 Outlook for the AI Large Model Industry Under the wave of AI technological innovation, domestic artificial intelligence industry continues to increase R&D investment, with rapid iterations in technologies such as multimodal large models.
The "Beijing AI Industry Large Model Innovation Application White Paper (2023)" shows that as of October 2023, there are 254 large model manufacturers and academic institutions in China with parameters exceeding 1 billion, distributed across more than 20 provinces/regions.
AI applications deployed in the past few years may be replaced by AI based on large models in the coming years. Upgrades and iterations are likely to start with scenarios that prioritize massive data. When AI applications supported by large models become mainstream, manufacturers unable to leverage large model capabilities will lose their competitive edge.
Clearly, in 2024, large models will continue their hot trend, and the competition formed in 2023, known as the "hundred-model battle," will further intensify, penetrating deeper into the digital transformation processes of various industries.
Artificial intelligence large models are an important foundation for realizing AI applications and are widely used in fields such as natural language processing, computer vision, and speech recognition. According to predictions, by the end of 2024, 5%–8% of enterprise large models in China will see their parameters leap from hundreds of billions to trillions, with computing power demand growth reaching 320%.