Russian lender Sberbank has released technology called GigaChat as a rival to ChatGPT, initially in an invite-only testing mode.
The release of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot from Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI, has created significant demand in the technology sector to put AI into more users’ hands. The hope is to reshape how people work and win business in the process.
Sberbank said what sets GigaChat apart was its ability to communicate more intelligently in Russian than other foreign neural networks. The network can answer questions, maintain dialogue, write program code, create texts and pictures based on descriptions within a single context.
The GigaChat architecture is based on the neural network ensemble model called NeONKA (Neural Omnimodal Network with Knowledge-Awareness), which includes several neural network models along with supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning with human feedback.
Sber’s new neural network is capable of addressing many intellectual tasks: supporting a conversation, writing texts, and answering fact-based questions. By incorporating the Kandinsky 2.1 model into the ensemble, the neural network can create images. The lender plans to make NeONKA 3.5 with 13 billion parameters publicly available to accelerate the evolution of the open-source community and artificial intelligence.
Russia’s dominant bank has invested in technology in recent years, seeking to reduce the country’s reliance on imports, a process that has become critically important as Western nations have slashed exports to Russia and imposed punitive sanctions over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
To date, the model is a closed beta. Sberbank is requesting customers to join a telegram channel to try out the new neural network for free.
Sberbank says that GigaChat has several solutions that make the use of generative models impossible when this goes against the AI Ethics Code. Sberbank said its team of developers will be improving the smart neural network further, paying special attention to issues of ethics, safety, and security.
