The Beijing startup founded by technology pioneer Kai-Fu Lee is introducing its first artificial-intelligence application for consumers, a step aimed at helping China capitalize on the promising technology.
Lee’s firm, 01.AI, is launching a free productivity assistant called Wanzhi, the latest in a series of AI products it’s developing. Similar to Microsoft’s Office 365 Copilot, it helps users create spreadsheets, documents and slide presentations more quickly — though it’s mainly tailored for the Chinese market. It can interpret financial reports, take minutes for meetings and speed-read books as long as Elon Musk’s 600,000-word biography to give a quick synopsis. The app works in Chinese and English.
In an interview, Lee said that China needs its own ChatGPT — OpenAI’s chatbot that was released in 2022 and is banned in the country — to accelerate interest, adoption and investment.