The AI ​​created by humans has become so powerful that even humans themselves are afraid. One year ago today, the artificial intelligence company OpenAI released the AI ​​chatbot ChatGPT. The technology and investment circles began to crazily pursue this type of generative AI - "AI's iPhone moment", "the birth of the Internet" and "a new round of industrial revolution". But in less than a year, OpenAI fell into huge differences due to the rapid progress of AI, and even triggered a "palace fight" drama.

Ordinary people may be confused about the new era problems caused by AI, but when faced with such a tool that can write novels, code, draw, and sing, they will also have their own questions - will AI replace me? Has AI consciousness awakened? Is the AI ​​companion reliable?The Paper is trying to use data from multiple angles to answer questions about what changes AI represented by ChatGPT has brought to ordinary people and the world this year.

After the release of ChatGPT, the ridicule of AI retardation became weaker

In China, even if some people have not yet used the cutting-edge AI chatbot, curiosity and worry have permeated social media.

We used AI and ChatGPT as keywords and sorted out the hot search data on Weibo in the past year since the release of ChatGPT. We found that after the release of ChatGPT, people’s attitude towards AI gradually changed from curiosity to concern: If I can use AI to write plans, codes, and novels, then what else can I do for a living?


Before the release of ChatGPT, most of the hot search topics about AI were "Can AI cure all diseases?" "How good can AI singers sing?" "How outrageous is AI reading novels?" After the release of ChatGPT, more and more specific concerns began to arise: "Can AI replace designers?" "Can AI replace all jobs?" "Will ChatGPT make low-level programmers unemployed?"

These concerns are not unfounded. A paper released by researchers at the University of Washington in August this year showed that after the release of ChatGPT, the number and income of writing or editing practitioners on global freelance platforms showed a cliff-like downward trend.

In addition to the topic of AI replacing humans, people are also paying more attention to hot words such as face-changing, painting, and fraud brought by AI.

As AI has mature applications in many fields, it not only facilitates people, but also raises a series of legal issues, including copyright, fraud, etc. Some hot searches mentioned issues such as "AI face-changing and using celebrities such as Yang Mi to sell goods may involve infringement" and "being defrauded of 4.3 million yuan by AI face-changing in 10 minutes" and other issues.

Chinese company, allinAI

Although most people’s perception or use of generative AI may still be limited to face-changing or painting, the impact of this type of technology on the world goes far beyond that.

After ChatGPT came out, managers from many countries responded quickly. In March this year, Italy banned ChatGPT on the grounds of "illegal collection of personal data"; in June, the European Union officially approved and passed the draft of the "AI Act"; in August, China's "Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services" have officially come into effect, which stipulates that "those who provide generative artificial intelligence services with public opinion attributes or social mobilization capabilities should conduct security assessments in accordance with relevant national regulations, and perform algorithm registration and change, and cancellation registration procedures in accordance with the "Internet Information Service Algorithm Recommendation Management Regulations".

Through the announcement of the algorithm registration list, we can observe the current situation of Chinese companies deploying generative AI algorithms.As of August 2023, there have been 151 relevant algorithms registered in the algorithm filing system, and there are many major manufacturers behind them such as Tencent and Huawei.


Among these 151 algorithms, 33.8% of the generative synthesis algorithms are concentrated in the field of text generation. The generative and synthetic algorithms registered by major Internet companies are basically integrated into each company's business. For example, Alibaba's 7 text generation algorithms are distributed in Damai.com's intelligent customer service, DingTalk's instant messaging, Quark's image recognition and other scenarios. In addition, Tencent has registered many algorithms in the audio field - in addition to Kugou's method of obtaining user recordings to produce songs, there are also methods such as text-to-audiobook conversion.

However, there are still many difficulties hidden behind the large-model algorithms that China's leading technology companies are entering. Many practitioners mentioned in interviews with "Financial Eleven" that China's AI innovation environment needs to be improved. Problems include insufficient data quality and too high computing power costs.

From assistant to companion, AI focuses on companionship

Not only in China, generative AI has been implemented vigorously in many countries around the world. Many of them are different from major domestic manufacturers who only integrate AI into their own business. Many of them rely entirely on AI to provide services.

The most typical representative is ChatGPT. After this program was launched last year, it exceeded one million users at a record-breaking speed of 5 days. Then, 2 months later, the number of monthly active users exceeded 100 million, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history.

Such rapid development speed and broad prospects have made many people smell business opportunities. According to statistics from CBinsight, a venture capital data company, there are more than 210 companies around the world that provide generative AI services across industries. Generative AI covers a wide range of fields, and 62.3% of the financing is concentrated in applications such as AI assistants and human-machine interfaces.


Among the many generative AI applications, AI Companion is undoubtedly unique. Such applications have received 1.07 billion yuan in financing.

Statistics from a16z, a well-known investment institution in Silicon Valley, show that as of June 2023, after ChatGPT, the second largest website traffic data is CharacterAI, a chatbot that focuses on virtual companions and can meet users' social, emotional, companionship and support needs. The agency found that on the mobile side, CharacterAI is one of the strongest players. Its daily active numbers are comparable to ChatGPT, but it has a better retention rate.

ChatGPT’s biggest impact: igniting the AI ​​carnival

Compared with concepts such as augmented reality and the metaverse, which have also become popular in the past few years, both the industry and academia have a much firmer attitude toward this round of AI craze.

With the release of ChatGPT as a watershed, executives’ interest in generative AI soared almost overnight. According to CBInsights, the number of times "generative AI" was mentioned in earnings calls in the third quarter of 2023 soared to 2,081 times, while in the fourth quarter of 2022, this number was only 28 times.As of September 30, 2023, the amount of investment related to generative AI in 2023 has reached 123.8 billion yuan, which is approximately 5.4 times higher than in 2022.

Researchers have also submitted a large number of papers to the paper preprint website arXiv, and the number is increasing. As of November 17, 2023, the number of papers related to ChatGPT on arXiv has reached 1,603. On average, 4.7 related papers have been submitted to the website every day this year.


ChatGPT’s impact on the academic community also includes the fact that many paper authors have begun to use generative AI to write papers. Although many journals initially refused authors to use ChatGPT to generate text and images in papers, this has quietly changed. "Science" magazine issued a new editorial policy on November 16 this year, stating that the use of generative AI and large language models to create images and text in papers is allowed as long as the authors make appropriate disclosures in the "Methods" section of the paper.

Although there are still various problems and contradictions, breakthroughs in AI technology have put mankind on the eve of a new round of technological revolution. At the end of 2023, the annual words announced by many well-known dictionaries are related to AI. Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Cambridge Dictionary chose "authentic" and "hallucinate" respectively. The reason for the former is that AI has blurred the boundaries between true and false, leading to a surge in searches for "authentic" on the Internet, while the latter directly points to the shortcomings of current AI technology. Even if AI is so powerful, it can cause hallucinations and easily provide fabricated information.

Whether it’s AI’s word of the year, human questions on Weibo’s hot searches, or the “controversy over ideas” surrounding the resignation of OpenAI’s founders, this year has been filled with countless unanswered questions: Is AI really conscious? Can we fall in love with AI? Whether AI will replace humans... But what is basically certain is that the past year is just the beginning of AI officially entering and starting to affect the human world.

References:

1. Cyberspace Administration of China-Internet Information Service Algorithm Registration System, https://beian.cac.gov.cn/#/index

2.Epoch-ComputeTrendsAcrossThreeErasofMachineLearning, https://epochai.org/blog/compute-trends

3.21 Finance - Deep丨OpenAI in the whirlpool and the commercialization problems behind it, https://m.21jingji.com/article/20231122/herald/1b0a2ef92191268aedcf29cd72707466.html

4． Finance Eleven - China’s large model startup company cannot afford to learn OpenAI, https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/0uHxdzNusWIaRCPMTxp2gA

5. The Paper - The 2023 words of the year are all related to AI: Cambridge Dictionary chose "illusion" and Merriam-Webster Dictionary chose "reality", https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_25455617

6. Heart of the Machine - the fastest growing consumer application in history, ChatGPT monthly active users exceeded 100 million, https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_21787375