(Yicai) April 24 -- Shares in SenseTime surged more than 34 percent this morning before trading was halted after the Chinese artificial intelligence company released the latest version of its large language model SenseNova, which tests show has equal or better capabilities in language, knowledge, reasoning and other areas than US AI firm Open AI’s GPT-4 Turbo.

SenseTime closed up 31.1 percent at HKD0.80 today, reversing a downward trend that followed a peak of HKD9.70 in January 2022. As of yesterday, the stock had lost 84 percent of its value in the past year and is still far from the issue price of HKD3.85 at its initial public offering in December 2021.

SensaNova 5.0 has attracted great market attention and the firm has temporarily suspended trading according to listing rules and the recommendations of the Hong Kong bourse, SenseTime told Yicai. Further announcements on the resumption of trading will follow.

SenseTime launched SenseNova 5.0 and a series of derivative models and AI assistants in Shanghai yesterday.

SenseNova 5.0’s capabilities in language, knowledge, reasoning, mathematics and code writing match or surpass US AI firm Open AI’s GPT-4 Turbo according to objective evaluations, company sources said.

The Hong Kong-based company is linking arms with tech giants such as Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi, The Paper reported.

SenseTime and Shenzhen-based Huawei are co-developing a large language model for sectors such as finance, healthcare, government affairs, and code writing, SenseTime said at the press conference yesterday.

And Xiaomi uses SenseTime’s large model technology and end-cloud large model solution in the smart cockpit of its first electric vehicle the SU7, said Wang Gang, general manager of the Beijing-based firm’s AI-powered assistant Xiao AI.

Generative AI, conventional AI and smart car technology and service are SenseTime’s three main business segments, according to the company’s annual financial report released last month.

Revenue from generative AI, the firm’s key development direction, tripled to CNY1.2 billion (USD166 million) in 2023 from the year before, and the smart car segment logged a 31.1 percent jump in revenue to CNY384 million (USD53 million).

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor