Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up MiniMax has launched a new series of open-source models, intensifying the competition among mainland technology firms to deliver cost-effective AI systems that can rival top offerings from US competitors. The Shanghai-based company on Tuesday unveiled the MiniMax-01 large language model (LLM) family, which includes a general-purpose foundational model, the MiniMax-Text-01, and the multimodal MiniMax-VL-01 with visual capabilities. LLMs are the tech that powers text-generating AI products such as ChatGPT . In benchmark tests that MiniMax posted to its official WeChat account, the new foundational language model was shown to be on par with the world’s leading AI models in evaluations that included maths problem solving, domain knowledge, the ability to follow instructions, and avoiding hallucinations or factual errors. MiniMax’s release of an industry-leading AI system
