China races to catch up to US advances in AI amid Sputnik moment
• Chinese firms caught off guard by advances in generative AI like ChatGPT and are now playing catch-up
• Chinese companies relying heavily on underlying US AI systems like Meta's LLaMA to build their own models
• China estimated to lag US by 1-3 years in generative AI technology and gap may be widening
• Release of ChatGPT another "Sputnik moment" showing China's need to respond to US innovations
• Chinese models built from scratch seen as not very good, leading firms to fine-tune Western systems