Chinese government has approved 40 AI models for use so far

The Chinese government has approved 40 AI models for use in the past six months. Since the summer of 2023, Chinese companies have had to request government approval before an AI model can be used for consumer products.

According to Securities Timesa newspaper supported by the Chinese government, 14 large language models have been approved for public use, including: notes Reuters. Xiaomi, Alibaba, TikTok parent company ByteDance and Ernie Bot operator Baidu, among others, received approval. No full list of approved models has been revealed.

The approvals were issued in stages. The first models were approved in August of last year and more in November and December. Now the Chinese newspaper reports that another batch of AI models have been approved ‘for public use’. It is not clear whether and why any models were rejected for use and what the requirements are.

A control mechanism will also reportedly be put into effect in the United States soon Wired reported last week. Under the Defense Production Act, companies may soon have to notify the US government when new major language models are developed and trained.