In a recent interview with Nikkei Asian Review in Tokyo, Microsoft President Brad Smith said Chinese research institutions and companies will be major competitors to ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI, of which Microsoft is the largest investor.
Smith said that China is not too far behind the US in this area as US tech giants such as Amazon and Google become increasingly competitive in the development of generative AI. Currently, there are three organisations seen at the absolute forefront, one being OpenAI in partnership with Microsoft, the second being Google and the third being the Beijing Institute of Artificial Intelligence.
It is understood that this technology, which generates content such as text and images, has great potential in areas such as business, the arts, education and healthcare, but AI is also a "double-edged sword" in that it could gradually replace many jobs while easing the burden of human work, leading to unemployment and a widening gap between rich and poor; in addition to It could also spread misinformation, infringe on copyright, and leak privacy and sensitive information, resulting in a range of social impacts.