Source: Securities Times.
Venture companies that simply shell OpenAI may face a "catastrophic disaster".
Since last night, many users have received emails from OpenAI. The email states, "Our data shows that API traffic from your organization originates from a region that is currently unsupported by OpenAI." The email further states that, starting July 9th, OpenAI will begin blocking API traffic from non-supported countries and regions. Affected organizations that wish to continue using OpenAI services must access them from within a supported country or region.
According to reporters' inquiries, OpenAI's API is currently open to 161 countries and regions, but China is not included. This also means that OpenAI announced the termination of API services to China.
On the regulatory front, on June 22nd of this year, the US Treasury Department released a draft rule requiring the supervision of certain investments by the United States in the semiconductor and microelectronics, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence fields, prohibiting or requiring the restriction of Chinese investment in AI and other technology fields. In response, the Ministry of Commerce stated that China has noted the relevant documents released by the US and that the US should respect the laws of the market economy and the principles of fair competition, stop politicizing and weaponizing economic and trade issues, lift investment restrictions on China, and create a good environment for China-US economic and trade cooperation.
OpenAI's move is believed to be the result of comprehensive considerations of factors such as legal compliance and data security. As an American AI company, OpenAI needs to comply with relevant laws and regulations in countries or regions. It is worth noting that on June 13th of this year, OpenAI announced that retired US Army General Paul M. Nakasone will join the company's board of directors. OpenAI wrote in an article on its official website, "Mr. Nakasone's insights will help OpenAI better understand how to leverage AI to strengthen cybersecurity, quickly detect and respond to cyber threats."
Public information shows that Nakasone is a top expert in the fields of cybersecurity, technological progress, and global network defense. He played a key role in the establishment of the US Cyber Command during his military officer career. He was the longest-serving leader of the US Cyber Command and also led the National Security Agency, responsible for protecting the US's digital infrastructure and enhancing the country's network defense capabilities. He has served as a commander and staff officer at various levels of the US Army and has been sent to elite network forces in the United States, South Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
It is speculated within the industry that OpenAI's termination of API services to countries such as China may be related to the new board member who recently took office.
According to an industry insider who analyzed the company's official announcements, OpenAI has not provided services directly to users in China nor provided API access in China. Currently, there are two mainstream channels for accessing OpenAI capabilities: one is to connect to OpenAI's official API, and the other is to connect to OpenAI capabilities provided by Microsoft Azure. However, the industry insider also stated that using OpenAI's official API in China has always faced the risk of being blocked at any time. "Developers who do so out of personal interest can do it, but if companies do so, the risks will be relatively high."
"There are many startup companies in China that have grown by simply accessing OpenAI's API to build or promote AI models. They will be directly affected this time," said the industry insider. On the one hand, the termination of OpenAI's API services to China will bring a devastating blow to companies that want to leverage OpenAI's large models to start their business, and a group of companies without core technology or competitive strength may be eliminated if they fail to find an alternative solution in time. On the other hand, this will also force China's large model companies to accelerate their independent research and development, and encourage more startup companies to choose domestically-made large models to avoid possible future risks.
Editor/tolk