Chinese companies continue to create AI models that compete with those from U.S. companies like OpenAI.
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Image: Credit
This week, a startup called MiniMax, backed by Alibaba and Tencent, launched three new AI models: MiniMax-Text-01, MiniMax-VL-01, and T2A-01-HD. MiniMax-Text-01 works with text only, MiniMax-VL-01 handles both images and text, and T2A-01-HD generates speech.
MiniMax says its text model, MiniMax-Text-01, which is very powerful, performs better than Google’s new AI, Gemini 2.0 Flash, in solving math problems and answering fact-based questions. Generally, AI models with more "parameters" perform better, and MiniMax-Text-01 has 456 billion parameters, making it highly skilled in problem-solving.
MiniMax-VL-01 can compete with other models, such as Claude 3.5 Sonnet, in tasks that require understanding both images and text, like answering questions about graphs. However, it still doesn’t surpass models like Gemini 2.0 Flash or OpenAI's GPT-4o in many tests.
One impressive feature of MiniMax-Text-01 is its ability to process large amounts of text at once, analyzing up to 3 million words, which is more than five copies of the book "War and Peace." This is much larger than the capabilities of some other top models.
The third model, T2A-01-HD, generates speech in multiple languages, including English and Chinese, and can copy someone’s voice after hearing just 10 seconds of audio.
MiniMax has made most of these models available to developers on platforms like GitHub and Hugging Face. However, they’re not fully open-source, and there are restrictions on how they can be used, especially by big platforms with over 100 million users.
MiniMax was founded in 2021 by former employees of SenseTime, a major Chinese AI firm. The company has created apps like Talkie, an AI platform for role-playing, and text-to-video models. Some of their products have caused controversy, such as featuring AI avatars of famous people like Donald Trump and Taylor Swift without their permission.
MiniMax’s new AI models come at a time when the U.S. government is proposing stricter rules on exporting AI technologies to China, which could make it harder for Chinese companies to access advanced AI chips and tools to build complex AI systems.
Recently, the U.S. government announced more steps to prevent certain advanced chips from being exported to China without strict controls.
The official link of this news is https://www.minimaxi.com/en/news/minimax-01-series-2.