A former ByteDance engineer says China's AI industry is 'far behind' the US — and the gap is getting worse (www.businessinsider.com)

A former ByteDance engineer, Zhang Chi, has voiced concerns that China's AI industry is lagging further behind the US, refuting claims of rapid advancement. He argues that while Chinese models score well on benchmarks, they fail to deliver in real-world applications. Zhang highlights a concerning trend among Chinese companies, which he describes as "benchmaxxing," or optimizing for test scores instead of practical effectiveness. This issue is compounded by structural disadvantages in China, including limited access to advanced chips, weaker infrastructure, and lower-quality training data. For instance, while US giants like Google can iterate on large language models in three months, ByteDance reportedly struggles to achieve a single iteration in six months. Zhang's perspective starkly contrasts with views from prominent tech leaders, such as Elon Musk and Jensen Huang, who believe China is closing the gap in AI capabilities. However, he warns that the lack of user engagement and feedback loops in Chinese models could lead to a negative cycle where their technology stagnates. Zhang’s insights reflect a more pessimistic outlook on China's AI trajectory, suggesting that without significant changes, the competitive divide between the US and Chinese AI sectors may continue to widen.