Tencent has been testing a proprietary AI model internally across different business segments, including advertising and fintech.

During an earnings call on Wednesday, Tencent President Martin Lau announced that the company is currently developing and upgrading a proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) model?in preparation for its launch later this year.

One of China’s largest and most popular Internet service and gaming portals, Tencent believes that its AI product will also be among the best offers of this type in China. Although the exact details of its proprietary model, called Hunyuan,?are not disclosed, the tool has been internally tested for a number of purposes, including cloud computing, search, gaming, and fintech.

Moreover, the company anticipates using the AI technology to boost its advertising and marketing efforts. As for the tool’s cloud use, Tencent is developing a dedicated marketplace for its business clients to shop for generative AI-powered services.

In recent months, Chinese tech giants have been speeding up their efforts to catch up with their US peers in the creation of AI chatbots and related services. Private developers are encouraged by official government policy to make the country a global AI leader by 2030.

In May, Chinese tech Baidu Inc. has created $140M fund to finance Chinese startups that specialize in research in the field of generative artificial intelligence. The startups were expected to leverage Baidu’s Ernie Bot. The tool has become China’s first ChatGPT analog.

Amid the rising competition, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has also unveiled its proprietary ChatGPT rival called Tongyi Qianwen to be integrated across Alibaba’s various businesses.