The Beijing startup’s open-sourced, foundational large language model, Yi-34B, is now available to developers around the world in Chinese and English. Large language models, or LLMs, are computer algorithms trained on large quantities of data to read, understand and produce human-like text, images and code.
A Chinese startup founded by computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee has become a unicorn in less than eight months on the strength of a new open-source artificial-intelligence model that outstrips Silicon Valley’s best, on at least certain metrics.
The company, 01.AI, has reached a valuation of more than US$1 billion ($1.35 billion) after a funding round that included Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s cloud unit, Lee said in an interview. The chief executive officer of venture firm Sinovation Ventures will also be CEO of the new startup. He began assembling the team for 01.AI in March and started operations in June.
