According to the South China Morning Post, a recent white paper published by the municipal technology bureau of Beijing offered support to local companies in developing ChatGPT rivals.
As China s tech professionals returned to work after the week-long Lunar New Year holiday in January, the industry was immediately abuzz with talk about a new AI chat bot from San Francisco-based start-up OpenAI.
As the world goes gaga over an AI chatbot called ChatGPT, experts believe that developing its Chinese competitor will surely face censorship, cost and data challenges, as in the case of big Internet companies like Alibaba and Tencent.
OpenAI or ChatGPT itself is not blocked by Chinese authorities but OpenAI does not allow users in mainland China, Hong Kong, Iran, Russia and parts of Africa to sign up