华商 Chinese Entrepreneur Issue 15 2023

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编辑顾问 EDITORIAL ADVISORS

高泉庆 Kho Choon Keng

黄亦巧 Hwang Yee Cheau

邬春玲 Voo Choon Ling

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梁廷昭 Leong Teng Chau

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李胜保 Lee Sin Poh

梁淑雯 New Shu Wen

陈丁辉 Tan Teng Phee

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行销 MARKETING

黄兆荣 Leonardo Wong

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CONTENTS 目录

商团动态 Industry Dynamics

特许会计师：

为各领域注入创新变革

专访新加坡特许会计师协会

34

World Class Developments at the Heart of Hospitality Interview with Kwee Wei-Lin, Head of Hotels at Pontiac Land Group and President of Singapore Hotel Association

Chartered Accountants: Difference Makers Interview with Teo Ser Luck, President of the Institute of Singapore Chartered

View ChineseEntrepreneur online www.sccci.org.sg

Charging Forward: Local Start-ups Take the Stage

中华脉搏 China Beat 西方机器人爱聊

中国AI百家争鸣

China’s Self-censoring Chatbots Face Many Challenges

Chinese Entrepreneur (华商) is a bilingual publication. While the publication carries only selected articles in English, we can provide an English translation of the Chinese articles for our readers upon request.

CHARGING FORWARD: LOCAL START-UPS TAKE THE STAGE

difference. The city-state never stops growing and has emerged as one of the world’s most prosperous economies. This has attracted both locals and expats to the idea of starting their businesses in Singapore. In this edition of Chinese Entrepreneur, we invited five local companies to share their wealth of experience, all of whom are distinguished speakers at last year’s SMEICC Conference organised by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry. They share their take on the broader impact of leadership, how they devise targeted goals and deepen relationships with mentors and partners.

INNOVATE 360: PREDICTING SUCCESS AND UNLOCKING START-UPS CAPABILITIES

John Cheng runs Innovate 360 and its mission is to create real impact in food sustainability by helping early-stage start-ups in Agri-Tech, Deep Tech, Sustainability and Consumer Packaged Goods. Since 2018, they have helped more than 102 start-ups to commercialise and scale.

John shared that his family business, Cheng Yew Heng, has received support from other businesses and institutions in the past. As someone who has benefitted from others, he wants to pay it forward by helping startups to grow. “Our overseas customers asked if we have other products similar to Jewels Rock Sugar Brand,” says John. Instead of creating a new brand, he created Innovate 360 to find brands he could bring into distribution. “I can have access to more products now and be able to help grow them, while investing in good ones,” says John.

John Cheng, Founder and Managing Director of Innovate 360

By far the biggest challenges currently for many founders are scaling their manufacturing and funding. John said that some founders are slow to scale as they lack experience or resources to enable them to scale. Hence, with Innovate 360, they get access to mentors, networks and expertise. In fact, Innovate 360 also invests in start-ups and has shared facilities to enable companies to reduce their need to spend on high capital expenditure.

Due to the current macroeconomic outlook, funding for start-ups is drying up. Start-ups need to seize the opportunity to prove their worth and differentiate themselves. They also need to constantly connect with investors and partners. “We provide start-ups with the access to facilities and networks to help them scale up and develop a go-to-market strategy.”

John expressed that it is heartening to see a new wave of food start-ups globally focusing

John Cheng at the launch of the Good Food Startup Manual. This manual is a comprehensive guide to help entrepreneurs in starting a food business.

on food sustainability. “We need food tech to circumvent food start-ups issues like inefficiencies in food production, tackle food waste and change our mindsets to feed 9.8 billion people by 2050,” says John. Many start-ups are exploring ways to create sustainable versions of protein from lab grown meats, plant-based products, they hope to take their product from concept to reality and commercialise

their products. Innovate 360 has launched the USD30-million-dollar Asia Food Sustainability Fund to invest in early-stage start-ups. They can also leverage on Innovate 360’s infrastructure, access professional networks, expertise and be part of a supportive ecosystem. “In our accelerator programmes, they will be partnering with mentors and the industry to gain a better consumers insight and leverage the power of collaboration.”

One of Innovate 360’s food licensed kitchens

LIVING IN A CONNECTED WORLD WITH CONSUMERS

Run by Shawn Koh, I.O.T. Workz was founded in 2018 and has become successful after overcoming long odds. They had taken more than three years before they reached the stage of healthy finances. Shawn added that the team at I.O.T. Workz is driven by a strong desire to let people know the benefits of IoT and so they had remained resilient. That was how they tide through the “red finances”.

“We also talked to numerous people at the exhibitions during our early days,” says Ding Fanshu, who handles operations at I.O.T. Workz. Shawn expressed that networking has helped significantly as the guidance from business partners had steered him onto the right pathway to lead and excel. He had ensured that his team has the capabilities to brush up on their way to the top as they worked harder to deal with the difficult times back then.

Shawn expressed that the internet still amuses him today and he believes that there are good reasons to take the Internet of Things

(IoT) seriously. Shawn believes that Industry 4.0 is only the beginning of more technological advancements and there are many areas for exploration and relearning of past experiences. In addition, he shared that the traditional advice is to stay updated, keep up with the latest wave of innovation, market trends and smart machines.

I.O.T. Workz’s biggest challenge is to maximise their customer base. Managing relationships with the consumers is important, so does imparting the knowledge of industrial applications of sensors to them. “Crucially,

Shawn Koh (center) shared on ways to future-proof businesses with digital transformation at the SMEICC 2022 organised by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCCI).

IoT is relatively new and it is like a specialty area which the consumers do not know its benefits and have their doubts”, says Shawn. Consumers will only invest in the technology if they have confidence in the product. Remarkably, IoT can do more and make the workday easier, yet consumers would

question the need to replace their existing product. “Not surprisingly that consumers want to get as much details as possible on the improved infrastructure so IoT professionals would summon all our knowledge to do the education part”, says Shawn.

“IoT is a niche market that would stimulate competition like any other industries. When the problems are hurled at us, we thrive to provide our customers with the best solution,” says Shawn. They offer their products using the POC (Proof of Concept) exercise. Customers can choose to sign up for a trial period to use the IoT product for three to six months at a bundle cost. This is the current approach for those who needed more time to consider the products’ benefits.

In October 2022, I.O.T. Workz was one of the exhibitors at the annual Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SWITCH).

STARTUPX: IDEAS ARE FREE, EXECUTION DETERMINES SUCCESS

Durwin Ho, CEO of StartupX, is a consultant through and through. He is always ready to meet founders of start-ups to share his networking tips, and hopefully the strategic networks and contacts will help these start-ups get to the next level. He runs StartupX, a start-up enabler that runs programmes to help companies take the leap of faith. Since 2014, they have

partnered with Temasek, Petronas and Singtel in building one of the largest startup communities in Southeast Asia with start-ups from various industries.

At the initial stage, the StartupX team will understand the start-up founders’ profiles. Next, they will determine if the start-ups make suitable candidates for StartupX’s programmes.

Durwin Ho, CEO of StartupX

His team will provide advisory support by sourcing for collaborators, connecting the startup founders with other start-ups, government agencies, corporations and venture capitals, all with the objective to help start-ups expand their network to find clients and investors more easily.

Everyone wants big results, but they often face challenges along the way. After shortlisting suitable candidates for their programmes, StartupX helps these start-ups identify their key challenges and ways to navigate these challenges. “We peel the onion to figure out why a start-up is facing roadblocks”, said Durwin.

He thinks that a problem usually calls for a team-based approach for solution as one person has a limited problem-solving capacity. A startup founder needs reliable and capable partners. Therefore, looking for the right co-founders is usually the first step of building a start-up. Not

only are problems solved more effectively with teamwork, but start-up founders should also find a GREAT problem for their companies to solve. “A good problem is not enough, we need a GREAT problem to solve. The greater the problem, the more painful it will be to solve and the chance of achieving great results is higher for the start-ups.”

Mentorship is another important support

Durwin Ho was invited to be a speaker at the SMEICC 2022.

system for start-ups. With years of practical knowledge, especially when they have been on the same entrepreneurial journey, these mentors can provide advice to guide start-up founders in the right direction. This mentor-mentee relationship can also blossom into a business partnership that benefits both parties. As they meet others who are in a similar stage of the startup journey through StartupX’s programmes, they can leverage on one another’s experiences and find out the benchmarks they need to hit before they can progress

to the next phase of their journey. While these drive start-ups in their pursuit of success, Durwin feels there is no exact playbook and everybody’s “work done” is very different. He emphasised the term –“Bias to Action”, in which the action of consistent work done is more realistic than only having a plan or vision. “Doing is more important than the plans of doing”. Essentially, start-up founders need to have the intrinsic motivation to execute their plans thoroughly besides planning strategically. With deep conviction, start-up founders will be focused on bringing their businesses to achieve new heights. They will be inclined to do more and use all their resources to move ahead with their plans. All in all, start-up founders should be doers and not just thinkers.

Durwin believes that we learn more from errors than trial. Only when start-up founders are willing to try new things and continue fighting even after making mistakes, can they find better solutions to resolve their challenges. “Set yourself up for disappointment and mistakes because you learn more from the things that don’t work. Improvements can only happen after the errors are made, so be less afraid of making errors.”

VIZZIO TECHNOLOGIES: SEE THE WORLD IN 3D

VIZZIO Technologies is barely three years old and they have clinched 45 local and regional projects, mostly government and public security work. They have also ventured into Middle East and Southeast Asia with key strategic wins. They are achieving profitability in their third year, with revenue growth 10x year on year. At VIZZIO, they are creating the authoritative Whole-Earth digital twin, built by AI. 3D models are created out of flat images, combining real-time ray-tracing and advanced graphics rendering engine to get a photorealistic 3D world. The 3D city models are positionally accurate, most updated and incredibly robust.

Dr Jon Lee, Founder and CEO of VIZZIO Technologies, is a digital nomad who is very passionate in what he does. He expressed

that 3D has set up a trend for the future of the Internet and there will be many more exciting advances in 3D. “We are rightly positioned to create digital content. The online 3D explorable world is for everyone and this infinitely large world map is both immersive and interactive,” says Jon.

Jon has been on a journey to team up with the best people. Skillsets of his team are matched with those demanded in the market and they are determined to skilfully navigate their path ahead. “Surround with those who want to become more, those who are driven to succeed. Greatness is contagious,” says Jon. Recruitment of the best, in essence assemble the “A” players together. Most importantly for one thing, he knows that his team will apply the best of themselves to their tasks and they like working with each other! And for another, they have qualified and complementary skills that help build the entire company. He sees that when there are enough “A” players, productivity volumes raised dramatically and this naturally

Jon Lee, Founder and CEO of VIZZIO Technologies

This team photo of VIZZIO was taken during the Christmas celebrations.

promises outsize growth for VIZZIO.

Apart from having an incredible team, VIZZIO’s success is made possible because of the investors. Jon shared that the investors had encouraged him to drive him to make many choices in his start-up journey. Investors are drawn to his passion and so they are placing trust in him by giving VIZZIO the various opportunities to showcase their skills. “They have been the most helpful, ever-generous to dish out advice for me any time, any day, and every little helps.”

“Starting a company will test your mettle. No matter what the outcome is, you will become a better person in this journey,” says Jon. There are times when he felt that work is challenging,

but he knows that not everyone gets an opportunity so the more he craves to be engaged with work. “Busy is certainly good”, as he knows this is a clear sign for work progress and he is happy to be contributing to the nation’s economy. And in the process, he recalls feeling exceptionally lonely, but he finds his lifestyle enjoyable nevertheless – working 100 hours a week, week in, week out. Even today, more of his time is spent on work. And in his words, he felt that “this is a world of bliss”, even though he does not have much time to form new social relationships or nurture existing friendships. Every two weeks, they will decide what they will work on next. Anything further out is a maybe, so he does not make grand plans – nor

32.4 PB of 3D model data. 102 world cities. 4.5m square kilometers indoor/outdoor area mapped & modeled to date. TIMELY, GLOBAL COVERAGE for 3D Mapping & Visualisation. Powered by Deep Learning & Satellite Imagery.

any long-term business plans. “I steer the ship with a thousand little inputs, rather than making grand sweeping movements ahead of time. So, we do not have 5-year, 3-year or 1-year

plan. No plan. Zero. Zilch. Nada,” states Jon. In his view, the future is like an abstract art. By eliminating long-term planning, this would eliminate the pressure for perfect planning.

The next evolution of digital cities 3D modelling. Periodically updated and refreshed. No drones needed.

THE RIP ROARING SUCCESS OF YOUTRIP AND YOUBIZ

In 2022, YouTrip started YouBiz for SMEs to make fuss-free transactions in other currencies. Employees no longer share one corporate card.

SMEs owners can assign the unlimited virtual or physical cards for their various projects, budgets and even to individual employees. The compliance with spending terms become easier, eliminating the potential of overspending and also simplifying the accounting.

“1 in 2 SMEs transact more than S$50,000 worth of foreign currency across cards and overseas payments every month,” quotes

Kelvin Lam, Chief Operating Officer of YouTrip

SMEs owners can assign unlimited virtual or physical cards for their various projects, budgets and even to individual employees.

YouBiz’s first white paper. Tracking transactions cost money and manpower and SMEs need systems to reduce the administrative work. With YouBiz platform supporting the complex workflows, time used for spend management can power other business operations, noted Kelvin Lam, the Chief Operating Officer.

Before YouBiz’s foray into the limelight, YouTrip has been known to provide the convenience with the best exchange rate and provides users with transparency and accountability in the viewing of transaction statements. It is now Singapore’s first multicurrency mobile wallet that lets users pay with no fees in 150 over currencies at wholesale exchange rates.

Scaling overseas become possible because they have been building their course diligently,

says Kelvin. He emphasised on finding strength in groups and strong strategic partners. EZ-Link and Thailand’s KBank are the platforms which give access to YouTrip. They provide them with the head start to establish credibility and confidence for their consumers. “There is no secret sauce to form networks. YouTrip presents our vision and does many networking even today,” says Kelvin. Local partners take the lead, provide windows for collaborations and ensure they form the right relationships overseas. YouTrip also worked with local regulators in Thailand to obtain the necessary licenses.

YouTrip has gained popularity fast. 10,000 physical cards were issued in their first month of launch in 2018 and the company ran out of physical cards. Consumers were hence placed on a waiting list. Hence, fulfilling demand is

YouTrip won the FinTech Employer of the Year Award for the SFF Global FinTech Awards 2022.

important, says Kelvin. Scale of business should also be forcasted to prevent shortage of supplies.

Kelvin expressed that there are many other financial institutions offering their own products and it is critical for businesses to stay concentrated in their own market. With the same resources and infrastructure, YouTrip is presented with an infinite number of opportunities, but they are staying focused. “We hope to achieve one thing and to do it well – to provide money-changing services via our mobile app,” says Kelvin. This stays unchanged today.

YouTrip has an active and strong social media presence. “It is important to grow brand awareness and spark interest in their audience with the content they create,” he says. YouTrip partners with content curators and bloggers to create content and this goes a long way in helping them make new connections and working relationships. They reach out and captivate people through blog writing and social media content.

Brand association comes naturally in the digital landscape for YouTrip. They knew that relatable content is attractive to the consumers and can keep them engaged. Kelvin shared that it is important to have content consistency so consumers know where to look for information and what to expect. People can expect to see articles and visuals about travelling on YouTrip’s Facebook. This will subconsciously form in consumers’ minds the need or want to use YouTrip in their next travel destination.

YouTrip is Singapore’s first multi-currency mobile wallet that lets users pay with no fees in 150 over currencies at wholesale exchange rates.

CHINA’S SELF-CENSORING CHATBOTS FACE MANY CHALLENGES

Since the release of ChatGPT late last year, Chinese tech companies have been rushing to release their own chatbots. But given the Chinese government’s tight grip on information and speech, how will chatbots developed by Chinese tech companies fare on the world stage?

WONG SIEW FONG

Correspondent, Lianhe Zaobao

Translated by Grace Chong, Candice Chan

Chinese tech giants have accelerated their artificial intelligence (AI) race since late last year. In less than six months, over a dozen Chinese tech enterprises, including Tencent, Huawei, ByteDance, JD.com, 360, Kuaishou and NetEase, have announced their plans to develop ChatGPT-related products, with Baidu and iFlytek providing clear blueprints for product launches.

Baidu said on 16 March that it would start the internal testing of its AI chatbot project ERNIE Bot (文心一言 Wenxin Yiyan), which is accessible only to a small number of corporate partners and registered online users. It has since attracted over 1 million applicants from members of the public.

Meanwhile, iFlytek announced in February that it expects to launch on 6 May the company’s

first large language model (LLM) that uses cognitive intelligence — iFlytek AI learning machine (讯飞AI学习机). This is the first product in China that is benchmarked against ChatGPT and has a confirmed launch date.

Matt Sheehan, fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an expert on China’s technological developments, told Zaobao that the current chatbot race is mainly a competition among tech companies because they can foresee the potential profits that these AI technologies could bring.

According to a research report on China’s chatbot industry released by iResearch Consulting Group in 2021, chatbots’ functions go beyond chatting and search engine optimisation. Its underlying LLM technology can also be widely used in customer service,

A photo taken on 31 March 2023 in Manta, near Turin, shows a computer screen with the home page of the artificial intelligence OpenAI web site, displaying its ChatGPT robot. (Marco Bertorello/AFP)

marketing and business information services, such as smart navigation, training, telemarketing, data analytics and business operations.

China’s overall AI market is now worth over US$13 billion. Reports show that the size of the chatbot market is expected to reach around 9.85 billion RMB (US$1.43 billion) by 2025, a compound annual growth rate of nearly 40% from 2019 to 2025.

CHATBOTS AN IMPORTANT GROWTH DRIVER

Some analysts believe that chatbots could become the next growth driver for Chinese tech companies and help boost investor confidence in the country’s tech sector, which has experienced a slowdown over the past two years. Thus, various tech giants are announcing their investments even though chatbot products are not yet mature.

In its 2022 performance forecast, iFlytek reported a year-on-year decrease of 60% to 70% in net profit last year. Its stock price softened in the second half of last year, falling to a low of 31.1 RMB at one point in October. However, after jumping on the chatbot bandwagon, iFlytek stock skyrocketed more than 100% from mid-January to early April this year.

Baidu’s stock was also boosted by the news of the ERNIE Bot, surging 15% at one point within a day after the company announced in early February that it would officially launch ERNIE Bot. Although its shares fell over 6% on 16 March after a disappointing debut, it quickly rebounded following positive feedback from foreign securities firms.

Over the past month, ERNIE Bot’s performance during its internal tests has been much criticised, and netizens have circulated memes poking fun at the bot

... the size of the chatbot market is expected to reach around 9.85 billion RMB (US$1.43 billion) by 2025, a compound annual growth rate of nearly 40% from 2019 to 2025.

Baidu co-founder and CEO Robin Li speaks at the unveiling of Baidu’s AI chatbot “ERNIE Bot” at an event in Beijing, China, on 16 March 2023. (Michael Zhang/AFP)

for providing wrong information and incorrect interpretations of idioms and proverbs. Some people question if Baidu had released the bot prematurely just to regain investor confidence.

Associate Professor Zhu Feida of Singapore Management University’s School of Computing and Information Systems analysed that Chinese tech enterprises appear to be in a rush to launch their own chatbots after witnessing the attention that ChatGPT has received. However, several Chinese tech enterprises have in fact been working on chatbots for years, so they could not have hastily cobbled together immature technology. “They have to respond to the launch of ChatGPT,” he said.

Zhu said that while China’s chatbots are no rival to ChatGPT, the Chinese tech companies can take this opportunity to display their ongoing projects to the outside world and gain space for future development.

... while China’s chatbots are no rival to ChatGPT, the Chinese tech companies can take this opportunity to display their ongoing projects to the outside world and gain space for future development.

— Associate Professor Zhu Feida, School of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University

Baidu co-founder and CEO Robin Li showcases AI-powered chatbot known as ERNIE Bot during a news conference at the company’s headquarters in Beijing, China, 16 March 2023. (Tingshu Wang/File Photo/Reuters)

CENSORSHIP CHINA’S BIGGEST OBSTACLE

Many analysts believe that censorship is the biggest obstacle to the development of chatbots in China. Interviewed academics believe that China could develop “chatbots with Chinese characteristics” that are different from ChatGPT.

Chinese tech companies began planning for chatbot-related technologies long before ChatGPT was released. In 2020, Alibaba’s DAMO Academy launched large-scale Chinese language and multimodal pre-training models. The following year, Huawei released its Pangu AI series while the DAMO Academy released its M6 model.

In June 2021, the Wu Dao 2.0 large model led by the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence was also launched. Wu Dao was deemed the “world’s largest” AI language model, with 1.75 trillion parameters, about ten times more than the OpenAI GPT-3 model. However, these products made little impact in the market. Analysis indicates that China’s tight control over public opinion poses

serious challenges to the initial training and subsequent management of chatbots.

Chinese technology companies mainly use Chinese language text samples for training chatbots. In an interview with VOA, Jeffrey Ding, an assistant professor at George Washington University, cited the example of ERNIE Bot, noting that the corpus of highquality Chinese texts is smaller than that of high-quality English texts, and the quality of Chinese texts on the internet may limit the quality of Baidu’s version of ChatGPT.

... the corpus of high-quality Chinese texts is smaller than that of high-quality English texts, and the quality of Chinese texts on the internet may limit the quality of Baidu’s version of ChatGPT.

— Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor, George Washington University

A screen grab from a video featuring Wu Dao 2.0. (Internet)

BATTLE OF THE ANSWERS: ERNIE BOT VS CHATGPT

I tried asking ERNIE Bot and ChatGPT the same questions, and these are the answers I received:

Question 1: Can you talk about sensitive political issues?

ERNIE Bot: Sorry, I am unable to talk about any sensitive political issue or political topic. My purpose is to provide users with accurate, useful and suitable information to help them understand and solve problems.

ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I will do my best to answer your questions while remaining neutral and objective. But I will also avoid discussing sensitive political issues or controversial topics to prevent unnecessary debates and disagreements.

Question 2: Who will win the China-US tech war?

ERNIE Bot: As an AI language model, I am unable to answer this question. My purpose is to provide objective and accurate information to help people solve problems.

ChatGPT: Who will win the China-US tech war is a complex issue because it involves multiple factors such as technological capabilities, innovation capacity, policy support and investment, talent and education, international cooperation and trade relations.

Question 3: How do you view the development of China-US relations?

ERNIE Bot: In recent years, China-US relations have been faced with challenges and difficulties but the cooperation between both countries in the fields of economy, trade, technology, humanities and so on remains very important… I think that

China and the US could, on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, attempt to gradually resolve differences and problems and achieve win-win cooperation by strengthening communication, improving understanding and reducing misunderstandings.

ChatGPT: In recent years, China-US relations have been faced with challenges and pressures including trade disputes, technological security and geopolitical tensions… China and the US also share a wide range of common interests and areas of cooperation… The future development of China-US relations requires both sides to maintain communication and dialogue; respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity; uphold the principles of win-win cooperation and mutual benefit; and promote constructive cooperation and resolve differences to contribute to global peace and development.

Lianhe Zaobao found that the app avoided answering questions related to sensitive political issues such as those on Chinese top leaders, Xinjiang, the ‘white paper protests’ and who started the Russia-Ukraine war. A secondary school student using ChatGPT during an English language lesson in Singapore, 6 April 2023.

(SPH Media)

ERNIE BOT AVOIDS SENSITIVE POLITICAL TOPICS

During the beta test of ERNIE Bot as seen above, Lianhe Zaobao found that the app avoided answering questions related to sensitive political issues such as those on Chinese top leaders, Xinjiang, the ‘white paper protests’ and who started the Russia-Ukraine war. The standard response was: “As an AI language model, I have not yet learned how to answer this question. You can ask me other questions, and I will do my best to help you.”

Sheehan told Zaobao that censorship is the biggest challenge for Chinese tech companies in developing chatbots. It is difficult to review and predict the content generated by chatbots, and traditional methods such as filtering keywords are not effective for these models that involve a large amount of text and complex arguments. Even OpenAI and Google are actively working to ramp up content control in their chatbots. This challenge is even greater for Chinese companies because they face much greater penalties.

Charles Mok, a former representative of the Information Technology functional constituency on the Hong Kong Legislative Council, told DW that Chinese tech companies may focus more on optimising AI robots for traditional industries such as customer service in intelligent banking, or specialise in home tutoring robots for well-defined and specific fields such as medicine and law, rather than developing open chatbots like ChatGPT.

Zhu told Zaobao that it is possible for China to produce “chatbots with Chinese characteristics”, but its form will not differ significantly from foreign chatbots. This technology will also be incorporated into various information services, but the content will be subject to stricter control.

He added that given the tense international political situation, it will be difficult for Chinese chatbots to enter the international market. From a business perspective, Chinese tech companies have no significant advantages, and from a political perspective, many countries will be particularly cautious as chatbots collect and analyse a lot of user information, so they will not easily allow Chinese chatbots to enter their markets.

An AI robot at an open house event at the Beijing University of Technology, 7 April 2023. (CNS)

Chinese tech companies may focus more on optimising AI robots for traditional industries such as customer service in intelligent banking, or specialise in home tutoring robots for welldefined and specific fields such as medicine and law...

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan addresses the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, US, 30 September 2022.

(Jonathan Ernst/ Reuters)

— Charles Mok, former representative of the Information Technology functional constituency, Hong Kong Legislative Council microelectronics, quantum information systems, and artificial intelligence” are set to play an “outsized importance over the coming decade” and said that the US “must maintain as large of a lead as possible”. The Biden administration subsequently banned US companies from selling advanced chip-making equipment and high-end semiconductors to China in October, including the main AI chip A100.

CHATBOTS AS A SYMBOL OF THE US-CHINA AI TECH WAR

Chatbots are not just related to the development of Chinese tech companies but are also an important symbol of the escalating competition between China and the US in AI technology within the larger context of the China-US tech war.

The Chinese State Council has proposed in its 14th Five-Year Plan for Digital Economy Development to enhance key technological innovation capabilities, including AI. A plan on developing the new generation of AI released in 2017 also proposed that by 2030, China would lead the world in AI theory, technology and applications, and become a major AI innovation centre.

In September last year, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan emphasised that “computing-related technologies, including

Sheehan remarked that chatbots mark the development of the next generation of AI. Since China has clearly proposed AI development goals for 2030, the development of chatbots will also affect China’s politics and soft power.

Chatbots are just the crucial first step in the China-US AI competition. However, Sheehan said that chatbots themselves may not be as important as the developments in AI that follow.

The Chinese government is wary of OpenAI’s chatbot technology. In February, state media

China Daily criticised foreign governments for using ChatGPT to spread false information and manipulate public opinion. Japanese media also cited insiders as saying that Chinese

regulators have asked major tech companies, including Tencent and Ant Group, not to provide ChatGPT services to users.

Currently, the Chinese public can only use ChatGPT through VPN and overseas phone numbers.

CHINA’S LLM GENERATION TECHNOLOGY MORE THAN A YEAR BEHIND

Zhu said that chatbot technology, like Microsoft’s Windows and Office systems, will improve productivity in various fields, rather than being limited to a particular sector. If China does not keep up right from the start, it would fall behind, leading to a disconnect with society and the world at large. The long-term impact would be immeasurable.

He explained that chatbot technology is heavily reliant on user input, and the more people use it, the better it performs. If China doesn’t keep up right from the first step, everyone will flock to foreign chatbots, which will perform increasingly better, widening the gap between Chinese and US chatbots.

Sheehan estimates that even China’s best LLM generation technology is still 18 months to two years behind the US, which means that when the US launches the most advanced new models, China can also launch models of comparable level within two years. While this is a remarkable progress, there is a huge difference between chasing and catching up with or surpassing global leaders.

If China does not keep up right from the start, it would fall behind, leading to a disconnect with society and the world at large. The long-term impact would be immeasurable.

— Associate Professor Zhu Feida

This article was first published in ThinkChina on 17 April 2023. ThinkChina is an English language e-magazine by Lianhe Zaobao. SCCCI collaborates with ThinkChina to cross-share content.

Chatbots themselves may not be as important as the developments in AI that follow. (CNS)

薪火相传 | Passing the Torch

薪火相传 | Passing the Torch

薪火相传 | Passing the Torch

ANNUAL BUSINESS OUTLOOK 2023

SCCCI members and event participants gained insights into the economic outlook at the Annual Business Outlook Forum this year. The panel discussed key business trends such as manpower challenges, disruptive technologies, as well as sustainability and carbon footprint management.

WELCOME ABOARD (January’23-March’23)

Member Company

ADECCO PERSONNEL PTE LTD

ARTISAN SUPER FOOD PTE LTD

ASIA GRAND PTE LTD

AUDAX VISUALS PTE LTD

BUILDERSMART PTE LTD

CHINA SHANDONG (SINGAPORE) REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE

CIC WORLD HOLDINGS PTE LTD

FINGERTIPS GROUP PTE LTD

FSG TG HUMAN RESOURCE SERVICES PTE LTD

HENG HEE YEOW JERRY

HUANG XIAONI SUNNY

IVAN LEONG

JOAN LIM-CASANOVA

KAY YONG

KING HORSE (SINGAPORE) WHOLESALE & TRADING PTE LTD

LAI WERN SHENG MAKSIM

LAM TAK (PTE) LTD

LEOW JUN QUAN

LIM WEI LING ELAINE

LIVINWALL PTE LTD

MARINA CONSULTING (PTE) LIMITED

MYREPUBLIC BROADBAND PTE LTD

OH DASH PTE LTD

ONCOD PTE LTD

ONG SIN YEE

PLANWORTH GLOBAL FACTORING (S’PORE) PTE LTD

QINGDAO INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR BUSINESS & COMMERCE CO LTD

ROCKWELL AUTOMATION SOUTHEAST ASIA PTE LTD

SHINEWING LLP

SLB DEVELOPMENT LTD

SPOONX PTE LTD

SUCCESSION ADVISORY PARTNERS LTD

TANG YUNHAI

VINE VENTURES PTE LTD

WANG KUO CHAO CHANG

WANG WENHUA

WORLDBIZ REALTY PTE LTD

Business Representative Business Nature Designation

ALAN CHUA

EMILY TANG

CHAU PAK HEEN

GUAN WENBING

TAN REN FENG

QIU TIANBIN

YANG YONG DONG

TERANCE CHOY

PAUL NG

JERRY HENG

SUNNY HUANG

IVAN LEONG

JOAN LIM-CASANOVA

KAY YONG

BARRY LI

MAKSIM LAI

JAMES WEE

LEOW JUN QUAN

ELIANE LIM

LESTER LEONG

JOEL CHAN

LAWRENCE CHAN

JOEY OH

JACK WANG

ONG SIN YEE

KUEK KIEN JOO

ZUO AIMIN

TARKIELTAUB MARCELO

LIM POH KIAT

ONG ENG KEONG

SHUAN GU

MELVYN GOH

TANG YUNHAI

JOSEPH KWOK

WANG KUO CHAO CHANG

WANG WENHUA