Why China didn't invent ChatGPT

Tech entrepreneurs now asking if country has become less friendly to innovation

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Just a few years ago, China was on track to challenge the United States' dominance in artificial intelligence. The balance of power was tilting in China's direction because it had abundant data, hungry entrepreneurs, skilled scientists and supportive policies. The country led the world in patent filings related to artificial intelligence.

Today, much has changed. Microsoft an icon of American technology - helped the start-up OpenAI usher its experimental chatbot, ChatGPT, into the world. And China's tech entrepreneurs are shocked and demoralised. It has dawned on many of them that despite the hype, China lags far behind in artificial intelligence and tech innovation.

"Why wasn't ChatGPT invented in China?" they asked. "How big is the ChatGPT gap between China and the US?"

They added: "The Chinese equivalent of ChatGPT? Don't take it too seriously."

They're also asking more fundamental questions about the country's innovation environment: Have censorship, geopolitical tensions and the government's growing control of the private sector made China less friendly to innovation?

"The development of any significant technological product is inseparable from the system and environment in which it operates," said Mr Xu Chenggang, a senior research scholar at the Stanford Centre on China's Economy and Institutions.