China has given the approval to more than 40 AI models to be accessible to the general public in the initial six months of introducing its approval regulation system. Last August, Beijing introduced a regulation that requires tech companies to obtain regulatory approval to make their LLMs accessible to the public. Chinese authorities subsequently approved two additional sets of AI models in November and December, with yet another set receiving the go-ahead this month. The recent approvals include 14 large language models (LLMs) granted to companies such as Xiaomi Corp, 4Paradigm, and 01.AI in the fourth batch of approvals. While the exact list of approved companies is not publicly disclosed, reports suggest that more than 40 AI models have received approval.

Why does it matter?

Chinese companies have been actively developing AI products due to the global prominence of OpenAI's ChatGPT. As of 2022, China possessed 130 LLMs, constituting 40% of the global total, trailing closely behind the United States with a 50% share, according to brokerage CLSA. Notably, in December, Baidu's Ernie Bot, a prominent ChatGPT-like chatbot, has amassed over 100 million users. These moves reflect China's strategy to foster AI development while maintaining regulatory oversight.