ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, launched its own generative AI model Doubao in China Wednesday, joining the crowded AI competition in China with low cost and rich application scenarios, reports Caixin. Originally called “Yunque,” Doubao is one of the first AI models in China to receive algorithm registration in 2023 and is now available at costs as low as 0.0008 yuan per 1,000-token prompt, 99.8% cheaper than OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, Tan Dai, president of ByteDance’s cloud computing services unit Volcano Engine, said at a launch event Wednesday in Beijing.
Doubao processes 120 billion tokens and generates 30 million images daily, becoming one of the most widely used models in China, Tan said. In natural language processing AI, a token is a unit of text that the model processes. Each 1,000 token is equivalent to about 750 English words.
Tan explained that although China’s AI model pricing is already much cheaper than foreign competitors, it still isn’t enough, as enterprises face much uncertainty in the move to AI and need to reduce trial-and-error costs. Through distributed inference and large-scale mixed scheduling, costs can be further optimized, Tan said.