Latest news with #LiuQingfeng
South China Morning Post
11-06-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Tech war: iFlytek says using local chips in AI models extends development time by 3 months
A senior Chinese tech executive admits that using mainland-produced semiconductors could delay the development of artificial intelligence (AI) models by three months, but insisted that his company would continue to use these chips and push improved processes. Liu Qingfeng, chairman and founder of Chinese voice recognition solution provider iFlytek, said that the extended AI model development process was due to the need for additional computing resources, compared with using Nvidia chips and their mature software ecosystem. In a statement posted on the company's official channel on WeChat, Liu said iFlytek was likely 'the only Chinese AI model developer that insisted on using domestic chips', including the Ascend 910B developed by Huawei Technologies, 'to avoid the risk of losing access to imported chips'. However, the company, based in Hefei, Anhui province, has been barred from purchasing advanced US chips since it was added to the US Entity List in October 2019. The iFlytek booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain March 4, 2025. Photo: Reuters According to Liu, when benchmarked against the A800 by Nvidia, the training efficiency of the Ascend 910B has increased to 73 per cent, up from 25 per cent at the end of last year.
South China Morning Post
22-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
No need for Nvidia: iFlytek touts reasoning model trained entirely with Huawei's AI chips
Chinese voice-recognition firm iFlytek said that training its large language models (LLM) entirely with Huawei Technologies' computing solutions has increased its growth potential amid the intensifying US-China tech war, after the Trump administration moved to restrict the export of Nvidia's H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China. Advertisement iFlytek on Monday boasted that its Xinghuo X1 reasoning model, a 'self-sufficient, controllable' LLM trained with home-grown computing power, had matched OpenAI o1 and DeepSeek R1 in overall performance following an upgrade, according to a company blog post published on WeChat. iFlytek and Huawei had worked together in the training of Xinghuo X1 to tackle the weakness of domestic chips in interconnect bandwidth, the company said in January when announcing the reasoning model. At the end of last year, the efficiency of Huawei's Ascend 910B AI chip was only 20 per cent that of Nvidia's solution for the training of reasoning models, but iFlytek and Huawei have jointly increased that to nearly 80 per cent this year, iFlytek founder and chairman Liu Qingfeng said on Tuesday during an earnings call with investors. A file photo of iFlytek chairman Liu Qingfeng speaking during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, August 29, 2019. Photo: VCG via Getty Images iFlytek first touted its LLM co-development with Huawei in June last year. The company's efforts to double down on domestic computing infrastructure comes amid tightening chip restrictions from the US. Advertisement
South China Morning Post
04-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
As AI disrupts China jobs, could a dedicated insurance fund protect workers?
As rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) technologies reshape the workforce and increasingly displace menial jobs, China should establish dedicated insurance to protect those at risk of unemployment due to AI, an entrepreneur suggested in the lead-up to Beijing's agenda-setting parliamentary meetings. Advertisement 'China should pilot a special AI-unemployment insurance programme, adopting a government-led, commercially operated model,' said Liu Qingfeng, a National People's Congress representative and founder and chairman of iFlytek, a voice-recognition software supplier with AI capabilities. Following the surprising success of DeepSeek , the Chinese start-up that has released groundbreaking open-source AI models, the sector's development has sent shock waves through the job market, with companies already planning lay-offs as automation takes over repetitive tasks. Liu proposed 'a dedicated fund to protect jobs most vulnerable to AI disruption while encouraging insurers to develop commercial AI unemployment products', offering a broader range of unemployment-protection options for society. He also called for an unemployment-risk early warning system to be set up in major manufacturing hubs such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, and he said enterprises that employ AI at scale should submit social-responsibility reports detailing the number of displaced jobs and their re-employment plans. Advertisement China should also strengthen AI skills training, with a particular focus on providing free training opportunities for low-income groups, Liu added.
