Image source: China Visual

BEIJING, April 10, (TMTPOST) -- Tencent-backed Sogou’s founder Wang Xiaochuan announced on Monday that he and former Sogou COO Ru Liyun set up Baichuan Intelligence that aims to become the Chinese equivalent of OpenAI, developing and providing AI services, fundamental large models and disruptive applications.  

A total of U.S.$50 million in funds had been raised for the start-up company, most of which came from Wang and his friends in the industry. Wang told TMTPost that a new round of financing will kick off in the near term and enterprise-oriented large model products will be launched by the end of 2023.   

“I think we can catch up with ChatGPT within this year. But it will take probably 3 years, or at least 2 years, to catch up with ChatGPT4 and ChatGPT5,” said Wang.

On September 4, 2021, Sogou completed its merger with Tencent. After the merger, Sogou became an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent. On October 20, 2021, Wang, 43, stepped down from the position of Sogou CEO. Wang spent most of his time studying life science problems with mathematical models after his departure from Sogou.

Wang had started a company named “Five Seasons Smart Health” focusing on brain health and sleep-related research, which attracted investments from venture capitalists and scientist foundations.  

Wang has a strong background in computer science and extensive management experience. During his work at Sogou, Wang pushed for the collaboration between Tsinghua University and Sogou.

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, which acquired 1 million users in seven days and over 100 million monthly active users in two months. To date, visits to ChatGPT exceeded 889 million.  

Wang noted that ChatGPT has disrupted the division of labor born during the Industrial Revolution, boosting productivity and bringing about another revolution.  

“It is so fortunate to live in the early years of the 21st century. While the great internet revolution is still unfolding, the AI age has dawned like lightening. In merely 131 days after the advent of ChatGPT, new developments and new breakthroughs have emerged every day! A short period of 131 days is like a lifetime. Many friends have recognized my technological idealism and tech-driven entrepreneurship and encouraged me to create China’s OpenAI. After many tech experts knew my keen interest in large models, they volunteered to join my team, some with cash,” said Wang.    

Wang stressed that the key to the success of large models lie in talents. He is not only tech-savvy, but also has funds and personal connections.

In the past few months, Baichuan Intelligence has quickly attracted talents from Sogou and other tech giants to form a core team. The start-up company is also attracting world-class talents from China and abroad in order to compete with global peers. It has also won the strong support of Tsinghua University professors and the members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The company is expected to have a 50-member regiment by the end of April and aims to have the best large language model in China by late 2023.

“The search engine is a business very close to large models. We are training a model with 50 billion parameters and it’s making great strides. My colleagues are very excited,” said Wang, adding that Baichuan Intelligence will build the best fundamental models in China with the help of AI breakthroughs in language.

“We hope to strengthen AI’s functions in search, multiple-scenarios, education and health care and help the general public gain knowledge and professional services with ease,” he said.  

He revealed that his company is likely to launch a larger model that benchmarks ChatGPT3.5 in June, making search functions more powerful and enabling users to get more new knowledge in a few vertical fields.