The Beijing startup founded by technology pioneer Kai-Fu Lee is introducing its first artificial-intelligence application for consumers, a step aimed at helping China capitalize on the promising technology.

Lee¡¯s firm, 01.AI, is launching a free productivity assistant called Wanzhi, the latest in a series of AI products it¡¯s developing. Similar to Microsoft¡¯s Office 365 Copilot, it helps users create spreadsheets, documents and slide presentations more quickly ¡ª though it¡¯s mainly tailored for the Chinese market. It can interpret financial reports, take minutes for meetings and speed-read books as long as Elon Musk¡¯s 600,000-word biography to give a quick synopsis. The app works in Chinese and English.

In an interview, Lee said that China needs its own ChatGPT ¡ª OpenAI¡¯s chatbot that was released in 2022 and is banned in the country ¡ª to accelerate interest, adoption and investment.