Also charged are Vincent Feng, 32, of Quincy; Da Zeng, 30, of Massachusetts; Wei Qing Zeng, 58, of Quincy; Xian Rong Zeng, 45, of Hanover; and Qiu Fang Zeng, 59, of Windham, N.H., the statement said.

However, Wei Qing, chief technology officer at Microsoft China, said that ChatGPT was the culmination of long-term research and could not be replicated by splashing out cash.

At Vision China on Thursday, Wei Qing, chief technology officer of Microsoft (China) Ltd, said that in the era of AI, positioning the relationship between humans and machines is of crucial importance.