People stand next to a humanoid robot from Unitree Robotics during the Global Developer Conference, organized by the Shanghai AI Industry Association, in Shanghai on February 21, 2025. Photo: VCG

 
Chinese tech firms have launched new open-source products at the 2025 Global Developer Conference (GDC 2025) which officially kicked off on Friday in Shanghai's Xuhui district.  

Participants of the industry conference told the Global Times that open source is expected to dominate the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, fostering global collaboration and innovation. 
  
This year's GDC will run until Sunday, with around 100 developer communities worldwide attending, according to its organizer, the Shanghai AI Industry Association.

During the conference, the Shanghai-based AI software company SenseTime announced the upgrade of its intelligent software development assistant, Little Raccoon, to version 2.0, which integrates various AI functions to enhance office efficiency, as well as the debut of LazyLLM, an open-source agent application development framework, Jia Anya, the product director at SenseTime told the Global Times on Friday.

Alibaba Cloud on Friday launched two new open-source multimodal models on its ModelScope community. According to information Alibaba Cloud shared with the Global Times, its ModelScope platform of AI models, available to global developers and researchers, has become the largest AI model community in China, boasting over 10 million active developers. The new open-source ModelScope aims to make developing and running AI models easier and more cost effective, according to Alibaba.

One of the key highlights of this year's conference is the transformative potential of open source in shaping the future of AI development.

The latest open-source movement, significantly influenced by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's recent initiatives, is transforming the AI landscape, driving innovation, and advancing the development of new technologies, Liu Hua, a vice president of Shanghai-based AI startup MiniMax, told the Global Times.

Open source and inclusivity can drive collaborative win-win scenarios in the global AI field, promoting sustainable development in the intelligent era, Liu said, adding that open-source strategy is likely to become a trend, fostering international cooperation and creating new opportunities.

This also came as China AI startup DeepSeek, renowned for its groundbreaking open-source large language models (LLMs), announced on Friday that it will launch five open-source repositories starting next week. The company said on X, "We're a tiny team DeepSeek exploring Artificial General Intelligence. Starting next week, we'll be open-sourcing five repos, sharing our small but sincere progress with full transparency."

Li Jing, vice president of Shanghai-based AI startup Stepfun, emphasized the importance of open source in driving global innovation. "Open source brings a wealth of support and feedback, providing new directions for model iteration. Our goal is to share the latest multimodal technologies and contribute to the global open-source community," Shanghai-based eastday.com quoted him as saying.

Chinese developers have become the second largest group of contributors to GitHub, the world's largest repository of open-source software, according to media reports. 
 
China is bolstering the development of a vibrant open-source ecosystem, as more and more Chinese AI companies are promoting innovation through open-source initiatives and seeking development through inclusivity, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.

There is a significant increase in the number of enterprises initiating and adopting open-source technologies, and nearly 90 percent of companies are now utilizing such technologies, the Workers' Daily reported on February 18.

The open-source model lowers technical barriers, allowing more enterprises and developers to participate in the application development of AI technology, Wang said, adding that by leveraging open-source strategies, Chinese companies are expected to achieve a win-win situation, combining technological breakthroughs with commercial success and contributing to the global shift toward new forms of new quality productive forces.