Time magazine listed China’s cyberspace chief, Zhuang Rongwen, and ByteDance CEO Jiang Rubo in its latest TIME100 AI, featuring individuals that it deems to be the top 100 influential figures in artificial intelligence. Wang Xiaochuan, founder of Baichuan, one of China’s AI unicorns, also made the Time list.
Why it matters: This list gathers not only familiar academic and entrepreneurial names, but also AI innovators from China and beyond. The presence of Chinese names on the list is evidence of the prominent role the country is playing in the rapidly expanding field of AI.
Details: Ninety-one of those listed in 2024 were not featured on the list last year, according to the magazine, which is “an indication of just how quickly this field is changing,” according to Time.
- Time describes Zhuang Rongwen as “making history” last August, when China introduced regulations to govern generative artificial intelligence and approved several batches of domestic AI models for public service. As the director of China’s main AI regulator, the outlet says Zhuang’s decisions “shape whether China can keep pace with its Western counterparts.”
- “The list shows that Time recognizes Wang Xiaochuan’s long-term commitment to AI and our company’s multiple achievements in the field,” Baichuan AI said in an official post on WeChat (in Chinese).
- Beijing-based Baichuan is currently focusing on offering AI solutions to the medical industry based on its self-developed foundation models, the company said in a “strategy cooperation” agreement with Children’s Medical Center and Beijing Children’s Hospital.
- Doubao, the ChatGPT-like chat tool created by TikTok maker ByteDance, has overtaken Baidu’s ERNIE Bot to become China’s most popular chatbot in recent months, according to QuestMobile data.
Context: As of August, China has over 180 large language models available for general use, according to Wang Jingtao, vice minister of the country’s Cyberspace Administration. More than 564 million users have registered to use the AI-generated tools, Wang said in a meeting last month.