中國的人工智能正在非洲迅速崛起，這應該引起矽谷的擔憂 (1/3)

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

(Source: The NYT)

China’s A.I. Is Surging Across Africa. That Should Worry Silicon Valley (1/3)

In African tech hubs, developers are picking China’s cheap, freely available artificial intelligence models over more powerful U.S. ones.

The NYT - By Paul MozurAdam Satariano and Aaron Krolik (Paul Mozur and Adam Satariano reported from Nairobi, Kenya, and Aaron Krolik from New York.)

Aug. 5, 2026

When Ernest Mwebaze, a tech developer in Uganda, was building an artificial intelligence system last year tailored for his country’s many languages, he tested American and Chinese tools to see which one could help.

China’s won.

The A.I. model from the Chinese internet giant Alibaba handled Uganda’s dozens of languages better than anything from Meta or Google, Mr. Mwebaze said. It was also inexpensive, and he could customize the model with his own data.

“We want to build things as cheap as possible, yet have them work really well,” said Mr. Mwebaze, a former research scientist at Google. His system, called Sunflower, is now used across Uganda, including by farmers to receive weather information and crop advice in local dialects.

Mr. Mwebaze, 47, is one of thousands of developers across Africa who have turned to Chinese A.I. models in the past year. In Kenya, entrepreneurs are using the models to streamline legal and business services. In Nigeria, they have made educational tools that teach high school students. In Ghana, developers are building local chatbots.

China’s A.I. is surging, especially in developing countries, as people look for the best possible system at the lowest possible cost. Unlike models made by the leading American A.I. companies OpenAI and Anthropic — which are closed and charge fees — the Chinese systems are publicly available to download and modify without payment or approval.

Chinese “open-source” models account for roughly half of total A.I. use on OpenRouter, a service with 400 A.I. models for users to choose from, up from less than 25 percent a year ago, according to a New York Times analysis of data from eight million customers. Chinese models are also 19 of the 25 most downloaded open-source systems on Hugging Face, another A.I. database.

In more than two dozen interviews across Kenya, Uganda and other countries, developers, policymakers and executives described a rapidly changing A.I. market where cost, computing resources, data control and customization mattered more than where a model was made. Often they were not looking for bleeding edge A.I. They just wanted something that worked well enough on limited resources.

Using Chinese models was like owning a house while using U.S. models was like renting one, they added. Rather than spending millions to train a model from scratch, developers can download a Chinese system and build an entirely new product on top of it, paying mainly for servers. In contrast, U.S. models are a one-size-fits-all technology, needing subscriptions and other fees depending on the job.

“Why use an expensive Ferrari to do the school run when a Toyota hatchback can do the same?” said Moses Kemibaro, a Nairobi entrepreneur who runs a digital marketing agency, Dotsavvy, adding that Chinese models can be up to 90 percent less expensive when including costs like computing infrastructure.

Chinese officials hope their gains in Africa are a preview of things to come. Last month, powerful new Chinese A.I. systems rattled Wall Street and Silicon Valley, stoking fears in Washington that U.S. tech dominance could be undercut.

Xi Jinping, China’s leader, is using A.I. as a form of soft power. At a July conference in Shanghai, he cast Chinese models as more reliable and cheaper and warned that A.I.’s benefits must be shared or they would create “new historical injustices.” Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa and seven other African countries signed an A.I. pact with China at the event to promote international cooperation.

Chinese firms are also courting African developers with free computing and hands-on engineering help, developers said. Many Chinese-made smartphones in Africa come with Chinese A.I. tools preinstalled.

At the same time, China’s A.I. industry faces challenges. Companies have struggled to make money from their users and face security questions about data and links to Beijing. Many African developers still pay for American A.I. models, especially for technical tasks like coding.

(to be continued in part 2)

Translation

中國的人工智能正在非洲迅速崛起，這應該引起矽谷的擔憂  (1/3)

在非洲的科技中心，開發者們正在選擇中國廉價且免費的人工智能模型，而不是功能更強大的美國模型

去年，烏干達的一位科技開發者Ernest Mwebaze在建立一​​個針對該國多種語言的人工智能系統時，測試了美國和中國的工具，看看哪個更好用。

中國的模型勝出了。

Mwebaze先生表示，來自中國網絡巨頭阿里巴巴的人工智能模式在處理烏干達數十種語言方面，比Meta或Google的任何產品都做得更好。而且，它價格低廉，它還可以使用自己的數據為客人度身定做。

谷歌前研究科學家nMwebazen先生說道:「我們希望以盡可能低的成本打造出性能卓越的產品」。他開發的名為「向日葵」（Sunflower）的系統目前已在烏干達廣泛應用，包括農民用它來獲取當地語言的天氣資訊和作物種植建議。

47歲的 Mwebaze 先生是過去一年轉向中國人工智能模型的數千名非洲開發者之一。在肯亞，企業家們正在利用這些模式簡化法律和商業服務流程。在尼日利亞，他們開發了高中生教學的教育工具。在加納，開發者們正在建造本地化的聊天機器人。

中國的人工智能正在蓬勃發展，尤其是在發展中國家，因為人們都在尋求以盡可能低的成本獲得最佳的系統。與美國領先的人工智能公司OpenAI和Anthropic開發的封閉式收費模型不同，中國的系統可以公開下載和修改，無需付費或獲得批准。

中國的「開源」模型約佔 OpenRouter 的人工智能總量的一半。根據《紐約時報》對八百萬用戶的數據分析顯示，OpenRouter是一項提供400個AI模型供用戶選擇的服務，而中國模型的使用率較一年前的不足25%已大幅上升。此外，在另一個AI資料中心Hugging Face上，在下載量最高的25個開源系統中，有19個是中國模型。

在肯亞、烏干達和其他國家的二十多次訪談中，開發者、政策制定者和企業主管描述了一個快速變化的AI市場，在這個市場中，對於成本、運算資源、資料控制和度身定做方面，相對比模型的出產地更為重要。他們通常不會追求最尖端的AI技術，而只是想要一個能夠在資源有限的情況下運作良好的系統。

他們補充說，使用中國模型就像擁有自己的房子，而使用美國模型就像租房子一樣。開發者無需花費數百萬美元從頭開始訓練模型，只需下載一個中國系統，並在此基礎上建立一個全新的產品，主要費用僅用於伺服器。相較之下，美國模式是一種一機通用的技術，並需要根據具體任務支付服務費和其他費用。

內羅比企業家Moses Kemibaro說道:「為什麼非要駕駛昂貴的法拉利去接送孩子上學，豐田掀背車就能做到喇？」。他經營著一家名為Dotsavvy的提供網絡行銷服務的公司。他還補充說，如果將計算基礎設施等成本考慮在內，中國人工智能模式的價格可以便宜高達90%。

中國官員希望他們在非洲的成就預示著未來發展趨勢。上個月，中國強大的新型人工智能系統震驚了華爾街和矽谷，加劇了華盛頓對美國科技主導地位可能受到削弱的擔憂。

中國領導人習近平正在將人工智能作為一種軟實力手段。在7月於上海舉行的一次會議上，他將中國人工智能模式描述為更可靠、更便宜，並警告說，人工智能的益處必須共享，否則將造成「新的歷史性不公」。肯亞、衣索比亞、南非和其他七個非洲國家與中國簽署了一項人工智能合作協議以促進國際合作。

開發者表示，中國企業也透過提供免費運算資源和實際工程技術支援來吸引非洲開發者。許多在非洲銷售的中國產智能型手機都預先安裝了中國的人工智能工具。

同時，中國的人工智能產業也面臨挑戰。企業難以從用戶身上獲利，並面臨資料安全以及與北京有聯繫等問題的擔憂。許多非洲開發者仍需要付費購買美國的人工智能模型，尤其是在編碼等技術任務方面。

（待續，見第二部份）