"A Chinese quantitative trading fund has submitted a research paper to one of the world’s top artificial intelligence (AI) conferences, detailing a new training technique that it said could outperform mainstream methods employed by leading AI research labs, in a move that mirrors the path taken by DeepSeek.
Shanghai Goku Technologies, established in 2015, submitted the paper to the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems – an annual gathering of top scientists in machine learning and AI that is often referred to as the “AI Olympics”.
In its paper, Goku laid out the limits of popular AI training methods – including supervised fine-tuning (SFT) and reinforcement learning (RL) – and proposed a so-called step-wise adaptive hybrid training framework called SASR, which it said was inspired by the way humans develop reasoning capabilities.
SFT and RL are key techniques used by companies such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI and DeepSeek to train their AI models. DeepSeek previously highlighted the significance of SFT and RL in enhancing the performance of its V3 model, which made waves in the global technology community upon release in December.
“Experimental results demonstrate that SASR outperforms SFT, RL and static hybrid training methods,” the Goku team wrote in its paper, which was co-authored with researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Goku’s newly established AI subsidiary, Shanghai AllMind Artificial Intelligence Technology.
Goku, which operates under the slogan “logic and truth are the only principles we obey”, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
The company’s breakthrough in AI model training underscore China’s progress in this field, while showing the limits of Washington’s policies to curb the country’s AI advances through hardware restrictions.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently said that US curbs intended to contain China’s technological ascent were ineffective, noting that “China has 50 per cent of the world’s AI developers”.
China a ‘key market’, says Nvidia CEO Huang during Beijing visit as US bans AI chips
China a ‘key market’, says Nvidia CEO Huang during Beijing visit as US bans AI chips
In particular, DeepSeek – a prominent Chinese AI start-up that originated as a spin-off from the hedge fund High-Flyer – has generated significant attention by demonstrating China’s potential to achieve AI leadership through advances in algorithms and more efficient integration between hardware and software.
AllMind was registered on Monday, the same day Goku published its research, according to records from Chinese business registry service Qcc.com.
Goku founder Wang Xiao, listed as AllMind’s legal representative, said the start-up was created to explore the technological boundaries of AI models, according to a report from China Securities Journal.
Goku’s establishment of a dedicated facility for advanced research mirrors the approach taken by High-Flyer, which founded DeepSeek as an independent subsidiary in 2023.
As of the end of last year, Goku managed over 15 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) in domestic and global assets, using AI-driven strategies, according to its official website"
