While OpenAI has been continuously iterating and gaining widespread attention in the past few months, Google finally dropped a bombshell by unveiling its long-awaited multimodal model, Gemini, which Google itself touted as "the most capable model" they've ever built. 

Chinese analysts say it can help Google catch up with OpenAI in the generative AI race, which also teaches a lesson to Chinese AI developers that latecomers can narrow the gap through non-stop effort.

Considered as the biggest competitor to ChatGPT in the market, Gemini encompasses three AI models - Gemini Nano, Gemini Pro and Gemini Ultra - each serving different purposes. 

Gemini Ultra's performance exceeds current state-of-the-art results on 30 of the 32 widely-used academic benchmarks in large language model (LLM) research and development, ranging from natural image, audio and video comprehension to mathematical reasoning, Demis Hassabis, the co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, wrote in a Google blog on Wednesday.

Once released, worldwide news media splashed the story all over. Some Chinese media wrote the headline that "AI industry ushers in further catalysis with Gemini release." Zhong Junhao, secretary-general of the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Association, told Chinese media that Gemini will deal "a disruptive blow to OpenAI" as Google has created a mature AI development ecology, citing its vast range of deployment in hardware devices, search engines and chips as well as the new-generation large model. 

According to Hassabis, Gemini better understands nuanced information and can answer questions relating to complicated topics, like explaining reasoning in complex subjects including math and physics. It is also capable of understanding, explaining and generating high-quality code in the world's most popular programming languages, like Python and Java. 

Gemini Nano is a lightweight version designed for offline use on Android devices. On the other hand, Gemini Pro is a more powerful model that will be utilized in various Google AI services and now Bard  makes use of Gemini Pro. Gemini Ultra is scheduled for release next year. 

Starting from December 13, developers and enterprise customers can access Gemini Pro through Google Generative AI Studio or Vertex AI in Google Cloud. Although currently available only in English, Google plans to expand Gemini to support other languages in the near future. Ultimately, Google aims to integrate Gemini into its search engine, ad products, Chrome browser and more on a global scale, media reports said.

Google is still trying to catch up in the field of LLMs. OpenAI has a significant advantage in this AI race due to its large user base, and user feedback will only accelerate its development, Xiao Yanghua, a computer science professor at Fudan University, told the Global Times. 

The launch of Gemini is a crucial step for Google to catch up for sure, as it is advanced enough to achieve the level of GPT-4. However, surpassing OpenAI's GPT family may prove challenging. Xiao mentioned that the industry needs to wait and see as GPT-5 is officially on the OpenAI roadmap.

According to the comparison results released in Google's Wednesday blog, with OpenAI's current strongest LLM, GPT-4, the results indicate that Gemini Ultra outperforms GPT-4 in areas such as reasoning, mathematics and coding, with the exception of text processing, where GPT-4 scored 86.4 percent compared to Gemini Ultra's 90 percent in MMLU (massive multitask language understanding).

The claimed improvements over GPT-4 are in their own chosen tasks and most of the improvements are only different by a few percentage points, while in audio processing, Gemini is even weaker than GPT-4, Xiao noted. 

This scenario of Google making comparisons to GPT-4 is similar to Chinese AI developers claiming their large models can also approach or exceed GPT-3.5 on certain metrics. In July, Chinese tech giant Baidu announced that a new version of its language model, Ernie Bot, also known as Wenxin YiYan 3.5, had surpassed ChatGPT-3.5 and on October 17, Wenxin YiYan 4.0 was released, once again, Baidu claimed it had an integrated capability equal to GPT-4, media reports said.

Latecomers can narrow the gap through active efforts, which could be the biggest revelation Chinese AI enterprises take away from Google releasing Gemini, Xiao said, recommending that domestic large model companies be firm in faith and strive to catch up. 

As of October, China has more than 254 large-scale model manufacturers and universities with more than 1 billion parameters. These entities are spread across more than 20 provinces and regions, according to a latest white paper on the AI industry released by the Beijing Science and Technology Commission, Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park Management Committee.

AI focuses on attaining a sophisticated level of capability. Merely surpassing individual indicators does not necessarily mean declaring an absolute advantage for the opponent. Nevertheless, industry analysts noted that China's delay in the overall progress of LLMs can be compensated for by a competitive edge in new areas, such as models in more segmented industries, different scenario-based models and the seamless integration of language models with robots.

Liu Wei, director of the human-machine interaction and cognitive engineering laboratory with the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told the Global Times that "there is no way out if Chinese AI developers keep acting as followers of ChatGPT or Gemini. They must strive to promote basic and original technological breakthroughs such as large-model algorithms and frameworks so as to create product differentiation."

China's top internet regulator published a notice on Tuesday, announcing a one-month special campaign to rectify negative content orientation in short videos, in an effort to comprehensively regulate the short video platforms and promote healthy competition within the industry. 

According to the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission (CAC), the campaign is targeting three typical problems — the spread of false information, the display of inappropriate content and spread of wrong values. 

The notice listed the example of staged photography and dissemination of rumors related to people's livelihoods, such as fabricating plots of helping disadvantaged groups to exploit public sympathy, or staging fake scenes at the site of emergencies and spreading panic. 

The second example of false information were fake videos generated or edited by technologies such as artificial intelligence, using people's portraits or voices illegally in deepfake or voice cloning. The notice also specified to regulate videos that distorting or interpreting authoritative information released by official sources out of context. 

Display of inappropriate content includes deliberately showcasing actions with sexual implications, and marketing with such contents; and intentionally using special effects and props to deliberately create an ugly image to attract attention, or using cross-dressing to create vulgar personas against public aesthetics. 

The notice clarified that videos showing online celebrities' malicious marketing and highly dangerous behaviors, such as suicide, self-harm and animal abuse, as well as parkour and drag racing will be regulated. 

Short videos spreading wrong values include intentionally challenging ethnic and traditional customs, inciting ethnic hatred or regional discrimination, and spreading incorrect views on marriage and relationships, and deliberately creating gender opposition. 

Short videos spreading wrong values, such as boasting for an incorrect career view, unscrupulous means, negative nihilism, flaunting wealth, worshiping materialism, and indulging in extravagance, will be subject to supervision. 

According to the CAC, the recommendation mechanism should be optimized to focus on algorithm orientation and insufficient recommendation of high-quality short videos.  

It is also necessary to address problems such as the review mechanisms lack standards or the standards are not comprehensive. 

The campaign is launched to urge short video platforms to tackle the frequent occurrence of inappropriate contents and values, strengthen their content review mechanisms. It also aimed to create a healthy competition environment for orderly development of the industry, the office said. 

The CAC stated that during the campaign, it will close and penalize a batch of accounts and platforms that have serious violations of laws and regulations. It will also promptly release information to the society, ensure smooth reporting channels, and encourage the public to participate. 

Experts and officials called for enhanced international cooperation and discussed the direction for future policies to promote the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the 4th China and International Development Forum that kicked off Friday in Beijing. A report released at the forum unveiled that only 15 of the 169 SDGs are moving as planned.

The Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

According to the report, titled "China and International Development Report: Insights and Outlooks: 2023-2024" released by the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation (CAITEC), among the 169 goals, only 15 are currently progressing according to plan, with nearly half of the goals severely off track.

About 30 percent of the goals have stagnated or even fallen below the 2015 baseline. Over the past three years, approximately 160 million people in 46 of the world's least developed countries have fallen below the poverty line. 

By 2030, the global poverty rate is projected to be around 7 percent, with 575 million people still living in extreme poverty, according to the report the CAITEC shared with the Global Times. 

The report pointed out that, in recent years, global development has faced multiple crises and challenges. The scale of development cooperation funding has reached a historic high, while the development financing gap remains difficult to bridge. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, development financing for developing countries, excluding China, has decreased by 17 percent, while the funding gap has increased by 70 percent. 

The self-interest of Western aid has become more pronounced. In 2022, Western countries' aid to Ukraine increased nearly 20 times from $918 million to $16.1 billion. However, at the same time, official development assistance to over 40 least developed countries decreased to $32 billion, compared to 2021, the report said. 

Data within the report fully illustrates that the current international situation is complex and volatile, with numerous risks and challenges, difficult economic recovery and shifting development issues, Wu Junru, an official from the China International Development Cooperation Agency, said at the forum. 

The implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda has clearly slowed down, and global development is facing multiple and severe challenges. Facing the stagnation of global development, China continues to believe that development should be achieved together, and only sustainable development is good development. China is not only a developing country in its own right but also a natural member of the Global South. China has long attached importance to both our own modernization and global development cooperation, Wu noted.

Two years ago, China proposed the Global Development Initiative, aiming to link and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 agenda, reuniting development consensus and promoting common development. 

China is willing to work together with all development partners, including the institutions present here and high-end think tanks such as the CAITEC, to gather consensus, pool wisdom, and mobilize resources to jointly promote the implementation of the 2030 agenda and inject new momentum into global development, Wu noted.

Following three years of parallel shocks and crises including the pandemic, war and conflicts, most developing countries are faced with increasingly constrained fiscal space and spiraling debt. The combined impact of these challenges has set back global development progress by decades. Furthermore, the climate crisis continues to worsen - threatening humanity's very existence. The year 2023 is set to be the warmest year on record, Beate Trankmann, representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in China, said in her speech at the forum. 

No single country or actor can tackle these challenges alone. Strengthened international development cooperation is essential to driving forward global progress on the SDGs, and maximize effectiveness in light of scarce resources and ever-growing demands, she stressed. 

"The world has entered a new period of turbulence and change, and global sustainable development is facing multiple challenges. In this new situation, China is accelerating its transformation towards international development cooperation. In this process, it is necessary for the government, industry, academies and researchers to strengthen collaboration. It is even more important to open up exchanges and deepen cooperation with the international community and jointly build a global development partnership," Gu Xueming, Dean of CAITEC said at the forum. 

Against this background, this year's forum is themed "Jointly Forging Global Development Partnerships to Accelerate the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," aiming to build a dialogue platform, jointly explore the concepts, mechanisms, and best practices of international development cooperation in the new situation, and consolidate consensus and contribute wisdom to promote global sustainable development, Gu noted.

A total of 160 guests and representatives from various agencies attended the forum.