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Even though OpenAI is taking steps to restrict access in China to its platform, a fresh report claims that users in the country can still access the firm's products by using Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform. Microsoft and OpenAI have a close partnership which has seen the former gain unparalleled access to its products in the bid to expand enterprise computing through artificial intelligence features. The latest report comes courtesy of The Information, and the publication claims that it has talked with multiple Chinese customers who can use OpenAI's conversational AI models.
Report Claiming Chinese Users Can Access OpenAI's Services Comes On Heels Of OpenAI's Chinese API Restriction Date
Today's report follows OpenAI's announcement late last month that it would restrict Chinese customers from using its API starting July 9th. Unlike ChatGPT, which is a finished end product offered by OpenAI and its partners, the firm's API allows customers to use OpenAI's technologies to develop their own products. Essentially, it offers them the ability to layer additional software over OpenAI's program to create use case specific products that ChatGPT cannot cater to.
The free portion of The Information's report shares that while OpenAI is restricting Chinese users from using its API, Microsoft's Chinese customers can still access "OpenAI's conversational AI models." It goes on to add that these models are available to enterprise customers that use the Azure cloud computing platform as part of Azure's OpenAI service in China. According to the publication, it was able to confirm with three Chinese businesses "that they have access to OpenAI's models."
Microsoft's Azure OpenAI enables users to integrate their data and run custom queries with artificial intelligence language and image models. Along with OpenAI, it also offers products from Facebook's parent Meta as part of its artificial intelligence portfolio for a diverse, off the shelf customizable AI platform.
After OpenAI's announcement last month, Microsoft confirmed that it would continue to offer Azure OpenAI services to users in Hong Kong. OpenAI remains unsupported in Chinese territory and mainland China; by the looks of it, Microsoft has adopted a policy similar to that of its Hong Kong operations on the mainland. OpenAI pays Microsoft to offer its services on Azure, and it also pays a commission to the software giant out of its API revenue. Reports have also indicated that Microsoft has a right to the lion's share of OpenAI's profits until the latter can pay back its investor's multi billion dollar investment.
OpenAI's popular chatbot service ChatGPT is already banned in China, where authorities exercise strict control over the public's access to information. Chinese residents cannot access ChatGPT without workarounds as part of the government's efforts to control what it deems as propaganda. At the same time, the government has also approved more than a hundred local large language models in a bid to develop a local AI industry.
However, given the US's extensive chip restrictions, which also target AI chips, training these models should prove to be difficult for Chinese companies. Models such as ChatGPT require tens of thousands of the latest GPUs for their processing power, and a large portion of NVIDIA's $3.15 trillion market capitalization hinges on the fact that its products are industry leaders in AI performance.
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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