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The African firms adopting Chinese AI as US-China rivalry intensifies
🇨🇳 China /Technology

The African firms adopting Chinese AI as US-China rivalry intensifies

From South China Morning Post · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • African businesses are adopting a pragmatic approach to AI, using Chinese models alongside Western ones based on value and flexibility.
  • Nigerian firm Curacel uses Chinese AI models like Zhipu AI's GLM-5.3 for tasks such as coding and customer support, finding them cost-effective.
  • While Chinese models offer comparable results at lower costs for high-volume tasks, Western systems are still preferred for complex reasoning and reliability-sensitive work.

In Africa's burgeoning artificial intelligence landscape, businesses are increasingly adopting a pragmatic strategy that balances technological advancement with cost-effectiveness, often looking to Chinese AI models. This approach contrasts with a global pressure to choose sides in the U.S.-China rivalry, with many African firms prioritizing practical application and value.

In our experience, the leading Chinese models have closed much of the performance gap.

— Henry MascotAssessing the performance of Chinese AI models compared to Western ones.

Curacel, a Nigeria-based insurtech platform, exemplifies this trend. The company provides AI-powered claims and fraud-detection infrastructure to insurers and fintech firms across Africa. When expanding its internal AI capabilities, Curacel integrated GLM-5.3, a Chinese model developed by Beijing-based Zhipu AI, alongside offerings from Western providers. This multi-model strategy allows Curacel to leverage the strengths of different AI systems.

We can route suitable workloads to it based on quality and cost without moving the entire stack or locking ourselves into one vendor.

— Henry MascotExplaining Curacel's strategy of using multiple AI models.

Henry Mascot, Curacel's CEO and co-founder, noted that leading Chinese AI models deliver results comparable to Western counterparts at a significantly lower cost, particularly for high-volume tasks like coding, data extraction, classification, and customer support. However, he acknowledged that Western AI systems still hold an edge in more demanding reasoning and reliability-critical applications. Curacel's approach enables them to selectively route workloads based on quality and cost, avoiding vendor lock-in and utilizing lower-cost Chinese models within client deployments when appropriate.

We have also used lower-cost [Chinese] models within client deployments.

— Henry MascotHighlighting the cost-effectiveness of Chinese AI models in practical applications.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by South China Morning Post. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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