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On the evening of May 7th, Zhou Hongyi, founder of Qihoo 360 Technology, showed at the Douyin livestreaming studio of Oriental Selection.

During the event, Zhou jokingly thanked ChatGPT for exploring the development direction of large language models (LLMs) and revealing the technological roadmap. Since the beginning of this year, multiple technological behemoths including Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, Huawei and JD have announced plans in the generative AI field.

Zhou also appreciated the open-source ecosystem, including open papers, discussions, and engineering training. However, he agreed with Sogou founder Wang Xiaochuan's observation that there is at least a two-year gap between China's large language models and ChatGPT.

With regard to the flock of Chinese internet companies into the realm, Zhou says some players will eventually stand out due to the market economics, and large language models are essential to China because they can bring industrial revolution-level advancements to various industries.

Regarding the technological gap between China and foreign countries, Zhou admitted that Chinese companies initially followed suit, but would gain deeper understanding with the expansion of scenarios and user bases and would overtake competitors someday.

Zhou said that Chinese tech giants, both established companies and startups, are more pragmatic in using artificial intelligence to solve practical problems such as increasing ad clicks and bettering recommended images.

He underscored that OpenAI's success lies in its belief in generative artificial intelligence, taking an unpopular route to train the Transformer model with human knowledge. According to Zhou, GPT has two functional modes: the lot mode providing intelligent assistance, and the driver mode integrating with one's business system.

He envisions a future where everyone has their own GPT, and the technology becomes accessible to many companies, promoting industry development.

It is worth noting that Zhou Hongyi showcased Qihoo 360 Technology's "360 smart brain" during the event, but the AI product failed to amaze viewers in the English communication and in the picture-making.