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iFlytek

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iFlytek (Chinese: 科大讯飞; pinyin: Kēdà Xùnfēi), styled as iFLYTEK, is a partially state-owned Chinese information technology company established in 1999.[1] It creates voice recognition software and 10+ voice-based internet/mobile products covering education, communication, music, intelligent toys industries.[2] State-owned enterprise China Mobile is the company's largest shareholder.[3] The company is listed in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and it is backed by several state-owned investment funds.[4][5]

iFlytek
Native name
科大讯飞
Company typePublic; State-owned enterprise
SZSE: 002230
IndustryInformation technology
Founded1999; 25 years ago (1999)
FounderLiu Qingfeng
Headquarters
Hefei, Anhui
,
China
Area served
speech synthesis, speech recognition and natural language processing
OwnerChina Mobile
Websitewww.iflytek.com Edit this at Wikidata

The company was spun off from University of Science and Technology of China.[6]: 128  The city of Hefei is a major investor in iFlytek.[7][6]: 128  The company has faced accusations from human rights groups and the United States government of involvement in mass surveillance.[8][9]

History

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Liu Qingfeng, founder of iFlytek

Liu Qingfeng, who was then a Ph.D. student in the University of Science and Technology of China, started a voice computing company, iFlytek in 1999. Liu and his colleagues were operating the company at the USTC campus until they decided to moved it in Heifei. He also presented his business concept to then head of Microsoft Research Asia, Kai-Fu Lee, who warned Liu of competing to American advancements in speech recognition.[9]

iFlytek would later work under the telecommunications company Huawei. In 2008, the company went public. In 2010, they launch their major consumer product, the iFlytek Input.[9]

In 2017, Human Rights Watch reported the Chinese government had collected tens of thousands of voice samples, for use with iFlytek technology that identifies individuals by voice on phone calls or in public places.[10]

In 2018, iFlytek signed a five-year collaboration agreement with the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.[11] In 2020, the agreement was terminated due to concerns about human rights abuses of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.[12]

China's government designated iFlytek as one of its "AI champions" in 2018.[13]: 281 

In 2019, the company won the Applicative Award for its iFlytek translation system with the Super AI Leader award at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference held in Shanghai.[14]

In October 2023, the stock value of iFlytek fell after its AI-powered devices were reported to have criticized Mao Zedong.[15]

In 2024, iFlytek introduced the AI platform SparkGen, an automated video creation tool.[16] That same year in June 2024 during the unveiling of its Xinghuo 4 large language model (LLM), founder Liu Qingfeng admits that due to U.S. restrictions such as those of U.S. components used in computing platforms, the company will pursue to train its LLMs on "self-developed, controllable" infrastructure. The company stated that their LLMs were trained completely using Huawei's computing platform.[17]

Products and services

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Voice speech and recognition systems

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One of the company's major product was the iFlytek Input released in 2010. It was one of the early counterparts of Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google Assistant in China. Later versions of Input allowed translations for face-to-face conversations and closed-captioning for phone calls in 23 Chinese dialects.[9]

In terms of research and development in speech recognition, iFlytek showcased during a 2017 visit of U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing, that their technology can identify and record an individual's voice in a crowded environment.[18]

iFlytek Spark

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iFlytek Spark (Chinese: 讯飞星火), also known as iFLYTEK Spark Desk,[19] is a large language model developed by iFlytek. iFlytek Spark was first unveiled in May 2023 and was released in September 2023 after Chinese government's approval.[20][21]

History

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On May 6, 2023, iFlytek CEO Liu Qingfeng unveiled their AI model SparkDesk. The large language model was developed based on Huawei's AI chip, Ascend.[22] It was then updated to SparkDesk 2.0 in August 2023 and SparkDesk 3.0 in October 2023.[15][23]

AI devices powered by Spark AI received backlash in October 2023 after photos were shared in Baidu's Baijiahao of the generative AI criticizing Chairman Mao Zedong. As a result, the company's shares plunged by 10 percent.[15]

In January 2024, iFlytek upgraded their model to iFlytek SparkDesk 3.5.[24] On 15 August 2024, iFlyTek introduced Spark 4.0, which the company benchmarked against OpenAI's GPT-4 Turbo.[25]

Partnerships

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iFlytek has partnerships with Japanese company Odelic, Malaysian company Simon, and U.S. company A.O. Smith. iFlytek also managed to build servers in Singapore, Dubai, and Frankfurt, Germany.[26]

Reception

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Chinese regulations

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In 2021, iFlytek, along with Chinese gaming company Tencent Holdings, received a notice for violation from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT) for not rectifiying privacy concerns.[27]

U.S. sanctions

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See also: Persecution of Uyghurs in China and Xinjiang internment camps

In October 2019, iFlytek was sanctioned by the United States for allegedly using its technology for mass surveillance and human rights abuses in Xinjiang.[28][29][2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Ben Chiang (23 March 2012). "iFlytek Announces All New Voice Cloud and Siri-like Product". TechNode. Archived from the original on 1 December 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-24. Note: byline reads "Ben Jiang", but author webpage URL lists last name as "Chiang".
  2. ^ a b Hvistendahl, Mara (May 18, 2020). "How a Chinese AI Giant Made Chatting—and Surveillance—Easy". Wired. Archived from the original on May 18, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  3. ^ Harney, Alexandra (June 13, 2019). "Risky partner: Top U.S. universities took funds from Chinese firm tied to Xinjiang security". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 9, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  4. ^ Mark Lee (2012-08-24). "China Mobile to Acquire 15% of Voice-Recognition Company". Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on 2013-01-18. Retrieved 2012-08-24.
  5. ^ Dai, Sarah (July 17, 2019). "China's voice recognition champion iFlytek gets US$407 million funding boost from state investors". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on November 9, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  6. ^ a b Hu, Richard (2023). Reinventing the Chinese City. New York: Columbia University Press. doi:10.7312/hu--21100. ISBN 978-0-231-21101-7.
  7. ^ Luong, Ngor; Fedasiuk, Ryan (2022-06-22), "State plans, research, and funding", Chinese Power and Artificial Intelligence (1 ed.), London: Routledge, pp. 3–18, doi:10.4324/9781003212980-2, ISBN 978-1-003-21298-0, Similarly, iFlyTek received $2.9 million (18.5 million RMB) investment from Hefei Venture Capital Guidance Fund. This state-sponsored funding accounts for nearly 8 percent of the company's equity shares.
  8. ^ Inskeep, Steve (May 30, 2024). "AI companies in China aim for innovation despite U.S. restrictions on access to parts". NPR. Archived from the original on May 30, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
  9. ^ a b c d Hvistendahl, Mara (May 18, 2020). "How a Chinese AI Giant Made Chatting—and Surveillance—Easy". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2020-05-18. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
  10. ^ "China: Voice Biometric Collection Threatens Privacy". Human Rights Watch. 2017-10-22. Archived from the original on 2021-07-20. Retrieved 2023-08-30.
  11. ^ Conner-Simons, Adam (June 15, 2018). "CSAIL launches new five-year collaboration with iFlyTek". MIT News. Archived from the original on September 28, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  12. ^ Knight, Will (2020-04-21). "MIT Cuts Ties With a Chinese AI Firm Amid Human Rights Concerns". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2020-04-21. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  13. ^ Zhang, Angela Huyue (2024). High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780197682258.001.0001. ISBN 9780197682258.
  14. ^ "Top AI awards presented at World AI Conference". State Council Information Office. Archived from the original on 2023-04-01. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
  15. ^ a b c Ye, Josh (October 24, 2023). "Shares in China's iFlyTek tumble after reports AI-powered device criticised Mao". Reuters. Archived from the original on December 1, 2023. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  16. ^ "iFLYTEK Unveils AI SparkGen platform at MWC 2024". Martechvibe. March 2024. Archived from the original on 2024-03-13. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
  17. ^ "Chinese AI firm iFlyTek says its LLMs are trained completely on Huawei platform". South China Morning Post. 2024-06-27. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  18. ^ Mozur, Paul; Bradsher, Keith (2017-12-03). "China's A.I. Advances Help Its Tech Industry, and State Security". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2024-03-08. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  19. ^ "iFLYTEK Highlights Progress Towards a New AI Ecosystem at the 1024 Global Developer Festival-News-iFLYTEK". www.iflytek.com. Archived from the original on 2024-03-13. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
  20. ^ "iFlytek says its LLM outperforms ChatGPT model in Chinese". South China Morning Post. 2023-10-24. Archived from the original on 2024-03-11. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  21. ^ Ye, Josh (September 5, 2023). "China's 360 and iFlytek release AI models to public". Reuters. Archived from the original on September 28, 2023. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  22. ^ Feed, TechNode (2023-05-08). "iFlytek unveils large language model, claims it outperforms ChatGPT · TechNode". TechNode. Archived from the original on 2024-03-14. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  23. ^ Feed, TechNode (2023-08-16). "iFlytek unveils updated LLM SparkDesk V2.0 and new product iFlyCode 1.0 · TechNode". TechNode. Archived from the original on 2024-03-14. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  24. ^ Feed, TechNode (2024-01-31). "iFlytek claims the latest version of its AI model is as powerful as GPT-4 Turbo on certain metrics · TechNode". TechNode. Archived from the original on 2024-03-13. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
  25. ^ Dong, Cheyenne (2024-06-28). "iFlytek Chairman touts latest AI Spark 4.0 model as comparable to GPT-4 Turbo, emphasizes total self-sufficiency · TechNode". TechNode. Retrieved 2024-08-18.
  26. ^ "China AI champion iFlytek looks abroad despite U.S. crackdown". Nikkei Asia. Archived from the original on 2024-03-26. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  27. ^ "Beijing calls out iFlyTek, Tencent and over 100 others on data privacy". South China Morning Post. 2021-03-15. Archived from the original on 2024-03-28. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  28. ^ "US sanctions 8 China tech companies over role in Xinjiang abuses". The Nikkei. Reuters. October 8, 2019. Archived from the original on November 9, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  29. ^ Strumpf, Dan; Kubota, Yoko (October 8, 2019). "Expanded U.S. Trade Blacklist Hits Beijing's Artificial-Intelligence Ambitions". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
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