China tech companies are closely watching ChatGPT’s A.I. skills. Here’s what they’re doing about it

BEIJING — The business story of ChatGPT right now is more about what isn’t known.

Big tech companies in the U.S. and China rushed this month to announce they are working on similar AI tools. Their announcements often referenced Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, while disclosing few details on what they themselves were working on.

The artificial intelligence-powered chatbot ChatGPT has taken the tech world by storm in the last few months with its ability to generate everything from poems to business strategies in a human-like conversation.

Still, analysts say the tech is transformative, something that’s also been said about blockchain and the metaverse.

Here’s what companies — including those in China — are doing in this specialized area of AI:

U.S. startup OpenAI raced to beat rivals by launching ChatGPT in November, according to The New York Times, citing sources. The public interface skyrocketed in popularity for everything from homework help to strategy development.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.

Database software startup PingCap already has a ChatGPT-based product on the market. The company has offices in Beijing and San Mateo, California.

PingCap launched “Chat2Query” for customers outside China in January that uses a publicly available application programming interface from OpenAI.

The product lets clients analyze in seconds their companies’ operating data — such as best-selling car models — without needing to know a computer programming language, said Liu Song, vice president of PingCap. He said Chat2Query is free for clients processing up to 5 gigabytes of data.

“We think the revolution may not be in AI search but in every business,” he said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. However, he noted that those data need to be organized in a standardized way.