Written by | Wen Yehao
Editor | Wu Xianzhi
Under the wave of AIGC, the power of "model" is sweeping the technological context.
While giants such as Baidu and Ali are playing their cards one after another, players such as Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, and Yuncong Technology, which are slightly inferior in size, are also trying to squeeze into the track-the large-scale card table is becoming more and more popular. crowded.
The current thousand-model and ten-thousand-model battle is logically no essential difference from the previous hundred-regiment battle and thousand-broadcast battle. It is foreseeable that the large-scale model track will eventually be unable to escape the process of reshuffle. Compared with the giants who are bound to fight fiercely to the end, the players on the mountainside seem to be more careful.
01
Large waist models, each with its own way of playing
"Waist model" is not an exact definition.
At this stage, the vast majority of large-scale model products in China have not yet undergone deep baptism in the market, and it is impossible to clearly distinguish their advantages and disadvantages. However, if we look at the size, resource investment, technical background, application scenarios, etc. Differences can still be simply delineated to a certain extent.
Take Baidu and Ali as examples. As giants in the absolute sense of the Chinese Internet, they have deep resources and technical reserves. What they think about is not how to bear the high cost of large-scale model training, but how to cover more fields with large-scale model products , so as to preserve the name of "BAT" in the next round of technological succession.
In contrast, another group of players, due to their small size and limited resources, their so-called large-scale models focus more on specific fields, and develop large-scale models that match their own business needs in a targeted manner.
In April this year, Zhihu released the Chinese large-scale model of "Zhihaitu AI". Up to now, it has released large-scale model application functions such as "Hot List Summary" and "Search Aggregation", as well as a dialogue model product "Face Wall Luca”; and in March of this year, Xiaohongshu was revealed to have formed a secret team of large-scale models, and internally, it also seemed like a horse race, and multiple departments simultaneously promoted the application of AIGC.
It can be seen that compared with large-scale model products that are mostly developed in the fields of search engines and enterprise services, large waist models are more inclined to vertical application scenarios.
Take Zhihu as an example. As a leading question-and-answer community in China, it not only has a wealth of Chinese corpus, but also has a unique landing scene. Therefore, it can be seen that Zhihu’s internal beta “search aggregation” and other on-site applications are also good. Regardless of the so-called "empowering creators" in the first stage, the core is to optimize the user experience without departing from its original system.
Another example is 360. Since the beginning of this year, both Zhou Hongyi and 360 itself have told many ChatGPT-like stories around 360 Brain, but no matter how beautiful the story is, it must return to reality.
As expected, at the end of May, the 360 Brain Language Model was upgraded to the 360 Brain Visual Model. It is reported that the 360 Smart Brain Vision Large Model can be widely used in scenarios such as long-tail target detection, shop inspections, nursing care, and equipment inspections.
The many differentiated routes have a hint of "everything can be a big model". Players can't wait to fully arm themselves with big models from head to toe, either to "change the world", or to resist this round of technological changes and become a "century old model". shop".
As everyone knows, although large models are the product of technological succession, not all players can embrace large models casually. Blindly entering the game, not only is it very likely to trap yourself in it, but the Wanmo War will also become a huge bubble, which will eventually burst under the test of the market. For the big model players who are halfway up the mountain, it may be time to change their way of life.
02
Mockups are not the master key
A mockup is not a master key, it's more of a double-edged sword. Not to mention the burden of huge resource investment required for large-scale model development and maintenance, as well as compliance issues such as data security, many players have failed to find their own shelter in terms of application scenarios.
Take the ChatGPT-like dialogue scene, which can be called a "star scene" at this stage, as an example. Players from all walks of life are trying to replicate ChatGPT, and are constantly comparing the gap between their own applications and ChatGPT. Take the above-mentioned 360 Smart Brain Big Language Model as an example. At the beginning of its release, it was no different from other similar products in the track; the same is true for the Cloud Congrong large model produced by CloudWalk Technology.
As everyone knows, it is extremely difficult for players to share in this track, and blind entry is very likely to fall into the dilemma of "repeating the wheel". Although a wide range of C-end users are also interested in the domestic version of ChatGPT, the vast majority of users will lose their freshness after a short-term intensive experience. As Zhou Hongyi said, ordinary people may not have the motivation to use large models. The essence of large models is still a productivity tool.
In other words, although the large model has solved the problem of content creation to a certain extent, it has not immediately established a new commercial order. Most of them stem from their respective corporate service backgrounds. Perhaps it is because of this logic that 360 will combine its large model with other businesses and return to the security field.
This means that players with a stronger ToB foundation can better embrace large models. Conversely, players without the ToB gene may get lost or split in the wave of large models.
Take the content community focusing on the C-end as an example, whether it is the Baidu Tieba with strong "attack power", the "warm" Xiaohongshu, or the "forced" in the past, the value of the content community has always been not only Limited to the information itself, what matters more are the people who make up the community and the unique atmosphere they create together.
For example, Xiaohongshu, although it has not yet broken the shackles of commercialization, the community atmosphere has always been maintained well. However, with the AIGC wave sweeping in, painters who used to get praises for publishing works, now often have questions such as "Is it drawn by AI" in the comments, and "AI beauties" surround Xiaohongshu, It also injected a tinge of suspicion into the community.
At the end of the platform, the original intention of introducing large models into content creation is to stimulate user creativity, but it will inevitably strip away the original "humanity", which will have a profound impact on the community atmosphere. And this may be the reason why Xiaohongshu seems hesitant in the field of large models.
Compared with Xiaohongshu, Zhihu’s series of actions show that it is more eager to embrace this round of technological trends. It is worth mentioning that regarding the above-mentioned content ecology problem, Zhihu CEO Zhou Yuan once said that the starting point and end point of Zhihu discussion and sharing are people, and AI is just a link and an assistant.
In this regard, Zhihu is no different from content players who want to rely on AIGC to tell stories but are afraid of touching the sensitive nerves of creators. As everyone knows, the emergence of large models has changed the rules of the game. No matter how "pacified", the battle between AI and real creators is inevitable.
Therefore, one of the reasons for the crazy layout of Zhihu is that it has the "courage" to break the boat. After all, the humanistic and warm community atmosphere that may be destroyed by large models has gradually disappeared in Zhihu over the years— — Zhihu, which is full of marketing copywriting, is obviously not afraid of the "industrial waste water" in the AIGC era.
Compared with the exploration at the business level, another reason for Zhihu's entry into the big model may lie in its deliberate pursuit of "new". Looking at the AIGC track, there are not a few players who uphold this logic.
03
Original Universe 2.0?
In the context of science and technology, whether players develop and invest in large-scale models, or launch AIGC applications, the motivation is obviously not only for business considerations.
Taking Yuncong Technology as an example, long before the public beta test of Yuncong's "Calm" large model, it has announced that it intends to raise no more than 3.635 billion yuan for the research and development project of Yuncong's "Industry Wizard" large model, trying to capture AIGC's This life-saving straw; and Zhihu, as a "high-quality Chinese corpus", in fact, long before the big model was announced, the stock price had already risen due to the "ChatGPT concept stock".
Zhihu, who has tasted the sweetness of the AIGC story, although he lacks scientific and technological background, does not prevent him from applying the halo of "cutting-edge technology" to himself through "money money ability"——Zhihu's "Zhihaitu AI" Chinese large model protagonist In fact, it is not Zhihu, but Zhihu’s smart face. Perhaps in order to strengthen the binding relationship, Zhihu CTO Li Dahai will also serve as the director and CEO of Facewall Smart recently.
Players are rushing into the large-scale model track, which is undoubtedly a dramatic "technical drama", but behind the curtain, there are more different realities faced by different players-for players such as Yuncong and Zhihu In other words, AIGC is not only a round of betting, but also a tough battle, carrying the expectation of getting out of trouble; in contrast, TME, which is telling the story of AIGC, is more like treating AIGC as a "placebo" for the story. A lot of business brings a touch of color.
Another example is Soul. After failing to be listed on the US stock market, it submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in June last year, planning to go public in Hong Kong. Since it was the heyday of the metaverse at that time, Soul, while using the "metaverse" to package its previous business, also wisely changed the slogan from "follow the soul to find you" to "a social metaverse for young people".
At present, Soul's listing plan in Hong Kong is at a critical period, but the concept of metaverse has gradually cooled down, from a technology concept to a marketing concept, and only the so-called "insiders" are left talking about themselves at various industry conferences and dinners. talk. Against this background, Soul changed direction again, shifting its pen and ink from "Metaverse" to AIGC products such as the intelligent dialogue robot "AI Goudan", and became the first batch of ecological partners of Baidu Wenxin Yiyan. The abacus speaks for itself.
It is worth noting that AIGC applications require more technical support than the metaverse that fiddles with concepts. Therefore, for those players whose volume is not enough to support the development of large models, but who are also eager to tell the story of AIGC, the solution of accessing a large factory may be the only choice.
In the final analysis, except for the game industry, the cost reduction and efficiency increase within the enterprise, and a small group of people who can make money in extremely subdivided fields such as selling courses and ChatGPT accounts, the AIGC track has not yet developed a mature and reproducible platform. commercial order.
Looking at the players who are constantly entering the game, some regard AIGC as the former metaverse, as a "tool" to serve specific demands; some want to win the key to open the gate of the gold mine through a bet. As everyone knows, in this gold rush, selling water is the serious and profitable business at this stage-the domestic AIGC game, and the final high probability is the game of several ToB giants.
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