Chinese companies continue to release AI models that rival the capabilities of systems developed by OpenAI and other US-based AI companies.
this week, MiniMaxA startup backed by Alibaba and Tencent. rose up The venture capital is around $850 million and the value is more than $2.5 billion. Debut Three New models: MiniMax-Text-01; MiniMax-VL-01 and T2A-01-HD. MiniMax-Text-01 is a text-only model, while MiniMax-VL-01 can understand both images and text. T2A-01-HD; At the same time, Produces sound — especially speech.
MiniMax claims that MiniMax-Text-01, which has 456 billion parameters of size, outperforms Google's recently released models. Gemini 2.0 Flash In benchmarks such as MATH and SimpleQA, which measure a model's ability to answer mathematical problems and data-based questions. Parameters are roughly related to a model's problem-solving ability, and models with more parameters generally perform better than those with fewer parameters.
As for the MiniMax-VL-01, MiniMax says it competes with Anthropic. Claude 3.5 Sonnet In assessments that require multidimensional understanding, such as ChartQA, models that answer graphical and diagrammatic related questions (eg, “What is the peak value of the orange line on this graph?”). The MiniMax-VL-01 wasn't the best Gemini 2.0 Flash in many of these tests. OpenAIs GPT-4o and Meta's Lama 3.1 It took a long time.
Noteworthy MiniMax-Text-01 has a very large context window. A model's context or context window refers to the input (eg, text) that a model considers before generating output (additional text). With a context window of 4 million tokens, MiniMax-Text-01 can analyze about 3 million words at a time — or just over five copies of “War and Peace.”
For context (no pun intended), MiniMax-Text-01's context window is roughly 31 times the size of GPT-4o and Llama 3.1.
Launched this week, MiniMax's latest model, the T2A-01-HD, is an optimized sound generator for speech. T2A-01-HD has 17 different languages including English and Chinese, adjustable cadence, Produce a composite sound that can be combined with voice and tenor, creating a sound from just 10 seconds of audio recording.
MiniMax does not publish benchmark results comparing the T2A-01-HD to other audio production models. But to this reporter's ears, the T2A-01-HD sounded in line with the audio models. Must submit. and like startups. PlayAI.
Except for the T2A-01-HD, which is exclusively available through MiniMax's API and the Hailuo AI platform, MiniMax's new models can be downloaded from GitHub and the AI dev platform Hugging Face.
Just because models are “openly” available does not mean they are not locked in certain aspects. MiniMax-Text-01 and MiniMax-VL-01 Not really open source. MiniMax did not release the components (eg, training data) needed to recreate them from scratch. In addition, They prohibit developers from using the models to improve competing AI models, and platforms with more than 100 million monthly active users are under MiniMax's limited license, requiring them to request a special license from MiniMax.
MiniMax was founded in 2021 by former employees of SenseTime, one of China's largest AI companies. The company's projects include apps like Talkie. Character AIand text-to-video models released on Hailuo by MiniMax.
Some of MiniMax's products have been the subject of minor controversy.
Talkie, which was pulled from Apple's App Store in December for unspecified technical reasons, Donald Trump; Taylor Swift It features AI avatars of public figures including Elon Musk and LeBron James. App.
December issue of Broadcasting Magazine reported. MiniMax's video generators can reproduce the logos of British television channels, suggesting that MiniMax's models have been trained on content from those channels. MiniMax is in the news. He was sued. Chinese video streaming service iQiyi accused MiniMax of illegally training on iQiyi's copyrighted recordings.
The new MiniMax models arrive just days after the Biden administration. proposed. Tougher export regulations and restrictions on AI technologies for Chinese firms. Companies in China are already banned from buying advanced AI chips, but if the new rules go into effect as written, Companies face tight constraints on the semiconductor technology and models needed to develop sophisticated AI systems.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration; was announced. Additional initiatives focus on keeping sophisticated chips outside of China. Chip factories and packaging companies that want to export certain chips will have to comply with broader licensing requirements unless they do more scrutiny and due diligence to prevent their products from reaching Chinese customers.