Chinese university launches ChatGPT-like platform, crashes in hours

Beijing: China's Fudan University launched a ChatGPT-like chatbot platform but it crashed hours after the launch due to a sudden surge in traffic. The team apologised for the unexpected development. However, ChatGPT has also crashed several times due to heavy traffic.

The name Moss comes from the title of a superintelligent quantum computer in the Chinese sci-fi blockbuster "Wandering Earth 2". Several universities and tech firms in China are competing to quickly deliver a Chinese version of ChatGPT, a Microsoft-backed chatbot.

State media had described MOSS as the first Chinese rival to OpenAI's popular ChatGPT platform. As soon as it was launched on Monday, it went viral on Chinese social media. It also got tens of millions of hits on Twitter-like Weibo. It crashed soon and the team on Tuesday admitted that it will no longer be open to the public, reported Reuters.

On Monday, the Fudan University team described MOSS as a conversational language model like ChatGPT. After it crashed, on Tuesday, they downplayed the comparison and said the platform has a lot to improve. A journalist from the Shanghai Observer was able to interact with MOSS before the crash and said its English was better than its Chinese.

"MOSS is still a very immature model, it still has a long way to go before reaching ChatGPT. An academic research lab like ours is unable to produce a model whose ability nears ChatGPT. Our computing resources were not enough to support such large traffic and as an academic group we do not have sufficient engineering experience, creating a very bad experience and first impression on everyone, and we hereby express our heartfelt apologies to everyone," said a statement published on its website.