The hottest technology of 2023 had a busy last few weeks of the year. On Nov 28, Abu Dhabi launched a new state-backed artificial intelligence firm, AI71, that will commercialise its leading “large language model” (LLM), Falcon. On Dec 11, Mistral, a seven-month-old French model-builder, announced a blockbuster US$400 million (S$529 million) funding round, which insiders say will value the firm at over US$2 billion. Four days later Krutrim, a new Indian start-up, unveiled India’s first multilingual LLM, barely a week after Sarvam, a five-month-old one, raised US$41 million to build similar Indian-language models.

Ever since OpenAI, an American firm, launched ChatGPT, its human-like conversationalist, in November 2022, just about every month has brought a flurry of similar news. Against that backdrop, the three latest announcements might look unexceptional. Look closer, though, and they hint at something more profound. The three companies are, in their own distinct ways, vying to become AI national champions.