BEIJING: A team from China's Fudan University apologized on Tuesday after a ChatGPT-like chatbot platform they developed crashed hours after it launched to the public, due to a sudden surge of traffic.
The team's announcement on Monday of the platform they called MOSS instantly went viral on Chinese social media, generating tens of millions of hits on China's Twitter-like Weibo. State media described it as the first Chinese rival to OpenAI's hit ChatGPT platform.
But MOSS, which bears the same name as a superintelligent quantum computer in Chinese sci-fi blockbuster "Wandering Earth 2," crashed soon after and by Tuesday the team said it would no longer be open to the public.
The launch of MOSS and the public response to it underlines the fervor for generative AI and ChatGPT in China and the challenges its domestic industry faces, as several of China's top universities and tech companies race to produce a Chinese version of the Microsoft-backed chatbot.
While the Fudan University team had on Monday initially described MOSS as a conversational language model like ChatGPT, on Tuesday they played down the comparison, saying they had much to improve.
"MOSS is still a very immature model, it is still has a long way to go before reaching ChatGPT. An academic research lab like us is unable to produce a model whose ability nears ChatGPT," a statement published on its website said.
"Our computing resources were not enough to support such large traffic and as an academic group we do not have sufficient engineering experience, creating a very bad experience and first impression on everyone, and we hereby express our heartfelt apologies to everyone."
ChatGPT, the fastest-growing consumer application in history, has also crashed several times due to heavy traffic.
While few users were able to share their experiences of the platform before the crash, a journalist from the Shanghai Observer shared a detailed account of an interaction with MOSS and said that the chatbot's English was better than its Chinese.
The team's leader, Qiu Xipeng, a professor at Fudan's School of Computer Science, told the Shanghai Observer on Monday that the main gap between MOSS and ChatGPT was that the number of parameters put into MOSS' language training was an order of magnitude smaller than ChatGPT.
Qiu did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
China Fudan University team apologises after ChatGPT-style platform crashes hours after launch
https://arab.news/228hb
China Fudan University team apologises after ChatGPT-style platform crashes hours after launch
- The platform was named MOSS after a superintelligent quantum computer in Chinese sci-fi hit movie "Wandering Earth 2"
Foreign media group slams Israel for refusing to lift Gaza press ban
- Foreign Press Association expresses 'profound disappointment' with Israeli government’s response to a Supreme Court appeal
- Israel has barred foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated territory since the war started
JERUSALEM: An international media association on Tuesday criticized the Israeli government for maintaining its ban on unrestricted media access to Gaza, calling the move disappointing.
The government had told the Supreme Court in a submission late Sunday that the ban should remain in place, citing security risks in the Gaza Strip.
The submission was in response to a petition filed by the Foreign Press Association (FPA) — which represents hundreds of journalists in Israel and Palestinian territories — seeking immediate and unrestricted access for foreign journalists to the Gaza Strip.
“The Foreign Press Association expresses its profound disappointment with the Israeli government’s latest response to our appeal for full and free access to the Gaza Strip,” the association said on Tuesday.
“Instead of presenting a plan for allowing journalists into Gaza independently and letting us work alongside our brave Palestinian colleagues, the government has decided once again to lock us out” despite the ceasefire in the territory, it added.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, triggered by an attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the government has barred foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated territory.
Instead, Israel has allowed only a limited number of reporters to enter Gaza on a case-by-case basis, embedded with its military inside the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The FPA filed its petition in 2024, after which the court granted the government several extensions to submit its response.
Last month, however, the court set January 4 as a final deadline for the government to present a plan for allowing media access to Gaza.
In its submission, the government maintained that the ban should remain in place.
“This is for security reasons, based on the position of the defense establishment, which maintains that a security risk associated with such entry still exists,” the government submission said.
The government also said that the search for the remains of the last hostage held in Gaza was ongoing, suggesting that allowing journalists in at this stage could hinder the operation.
The remains of Ran Gvili, whose body was taken to Gaza after he was killed during Hamas’s 2023 attack, have still not been recovered despite the ceasefire.
The FPA said it planned to submit a “robust response” to the court, and expressed hope the “judges will put an end to this charade.”
“The FPA is confident that the court will provide justice in light of the continuous infringement of the fundamental principles of freedom of speech, the public’s right to know and free press,” the association added.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on the matter, though it is unclear when a decision will be handed down.
An AFP journalist sits on the board of the FPA.
