Observers warn of further “decoupling risks” after OpenAI discontinues the service

AI photo: VCG

After San Francisco-based OpenAI announced it would stop providing services to Chinese developers, AI developers are now turning to domestic alternatives. Industry observers warned that the US government’s strategic competition with China is escalating the “decoupling situation” and hindering cooperation between companies from both countries.

Starting July 9, OpenAI will take additional measures to block API traffic from regions not on the list of supported countries and territories. A total of 188 countries and regions currently support access to the API service, excluding mainland China and Hong Kong.

API is the abbreviation for Application Programming Interface, which allows external developers to integrate functions developed by OpenAI into their applications and create their own AI software.

The US company’s move came after the US Treasury Department published a draft regulation on June 22 that would prohibit or require notification of certain investments in artificial intelligence and other technology sectors in China on the grounds of safeguarding US national security.

The draft is likely part of the Biden administration’s efforts to prevent the United States from helping China develop advanced cutting-edge technologies and to hinder China’s development.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce responded on Monday to US plans to restrict new US investments in important Chinese technology industries. China is firmly opposed to the US’s coercive step and reserves the right to take countermeasures.

OpenAI’s recent decision to restrict access may be a move to protect its own interests and market competitiveness, but the move shows that the US government’s engagement in strategic competition with China is influencing the decision-making of general companies, said Zhu Rongsheng, an expert from the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, as he shared his findings with the Global Times.

Growing protectionism for political reasons and the overstretched concept of national security in the US could intensify as the US elections approach, leading to further “decoupling” between companies, research institutes and the general public in both countries, Zhu warned.

The US has recently repeatedly used the rhetoric of a “national security threat” to stoke fears about Chinese products and thus hinder China’s industrial modernization. This reflects the US’s hegemonic mentality, Liu Wei, director of the Human-Computer Interaction and Cognitive Engineering Laboratory at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told the Global Times.

Liu warned that the US would harm its own interests if it restricted China’s high-tech sector.

After OpenAI restricted Chinese access to its products, about ten major domestic model companies announced the provision of relocation services, according to media reports.

Alibaba Cloud has announced plans to provide OpenAI API users with a lower-cost alternative solution using large Chinese models, offering 22 million free tokens to Chinese developers.

Startup Zhifu AI announced that it will offer developers 150 million tokens and a series of training courses to help them migrate from OpenAI to its ChatGLM language model. MINIMAX has launched a “nanny-style free migration plan” that offers platform interface adaptation for OpenAI and free use of the large-scale MOE architecture model.

In addition, Moonshot AI emphasized in a statement that its Kimi Large Language Model (LLM) provides an API service that is fully compatible with OpenAI, enabling a smooth migration in just five minutes.

According to the Global Times, industry observers generally believe that the discontinuation of OpenAI’s service will increase the market share of large domestic model companies in the short term and that their prices will be more competitive compared to OpenAI.

Zhou Hongyi, founder and chairman of 360 Security Technology, believes that the discontinuation of OpenAI’s services will accelerate the development of China’s own LLMs. The gaps between the two will be smaller and the trend of using domestic products as substitutes will be safer, Zhou said.