BEIJING, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Artificial

superintelligence may be available by 2030, but its capabilities

are only likely to surpass humans in some aspects, the head of

one of China's hottest AI startups said on Tuesday.

The AI industry is abuzz with speculation about when the

technology will overtake human intelligence. OpenAI CEO Sam

Altman predicted last week that ASI could arrive by the end of

the decade, while SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son

speculated last year it could exist by 2035.

Zhang Peng, the CEO of Zhipu AI, said on Tuesday the concept

was too vague to pin down to a specific timeline.

SURPASS IN PART, FALL SHORT IN MANY

"People reach different conclusions when discussing this

issue," he said, as the company released its latest large

language model, GLM-4.6.

"I think achieving or exceeding human intelligence levels by

2030 might mean surpassing humans in one or several aspects, but

likely still falling far short in many areas."

Founded in 2019 as a Tsinghua University spinoff, Zhipu AI

has emerged as a frontrunner in China's AI race and filed

documents in April indicating plans to list on mainland Chinese

markets.

In June, it was singled out by OpenAI as a fast-rising rival

and characterised as an extension of Beijing's efforts to push

Chinese-developed AI abroad. Zhang said the company was

"flattered" but its overseas expansion was "normal business".

Zhang said overseas revenue had begun gaining traction, but

acknowledged the company would not compete directly with U.S.

models in consumer subscriptions yet.

However, he said Zhipu AI was competing with companies like

OpenAI in serving enterprise clients. The company recently

launched a coding subscription plan targeting developers as part

of efforts to expand direct-to-consumer revenue streams.

While many AI firms have found it difficult to convince

Chinese consumers to pay for AI services, unlike in the United

States, Zhang said he believed that could change in a few years,

due to growing acceptance of the value of AI and falling prices.

He said the GLM-4.6 model was an upgraded version of GLM-4.5

released in July and had enhanced capabilities in coding,

reasoning, writing and agent applications.

($1 = 7.1206 Chinese yuan renminbi)