A man interacts with a Baidu AI robot near the company’s logo at its headquarters in Beijing, China, April 23, 2021.
Florence Law | Reuters
Beijing — Chinese tech company Baidu On Thursday, we unveiled to the public what the Chinese ChatGPT alternative can do while warning of its imperfections.
During the livestreamed launch event, Baidu CEO Robin Li emphasized that the company’s product, called the Ernie bot, is not perfect. Hong Kong stocks drop nearly 6.4%hit its lowest since Jan. 19, amid a sharp drop in Asian stocks.
Li emphasized how users can improve the product by providing feedback.
Baidu is prioritizing initial access to what it calls Ernie Bot, its 650 ecosystem business partners, including some media companies, banks and auto companies. Baidu has a large enterprise cloud business and said users of the company’s AI cloud can apply for access to the Ernie bot’s application programming interface.
Within an hour of Ernie bot’s announcement, Baidu said 30,000 corporate customers had been put on a waiting list for access to the chatbot. CNBC, other media outlets, and the public weren’t immediately accessible.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI this week announced GPT-4, the latest version of the artificial intelligence technology behind the hugely popular ChatGPT chatbot. The bot will first go live for free in November, with individuals who want access to GPT-4 functionality having to pay $20 a month.
ChatGPT can converse in a human-like way and generate everything from content summaries to business suggestions.
ChatGPT is free for anyone who can set up an account, but to try Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot (powered by OpenAI technology) that launched last month, you had to join the waiting list. Some users reported an eerie experience.
Baidu’s Li said that the Ernie bot also had similar problems when used extensively and was not perfect. But he pointed out that this model he has been trained on a set of 550 billion facts.
The AI is not meant to highlight the competition between the US and China, but is the result of Baidu’s commitment to “change the world with technology,” Li said in Mandarin Chinese translated by CNBC. rice field.
Baidu’s Hong Kong-traded shares are up 12% so far.
Microsoft’s stock is up about 11% for the year so far, and Google’s parent company Alphabet’s Class A shares are up nearly 9%.
Shares of major tech companies associated with ChatGPT
ChatGPT is gaining local interest in China even though it is not officially available in China. ChatGPT has Chinese features, but not as much as English.
Beijing has promoted national self-sufficiency in technology while maintaining censorship and tightening data regulations.
Besides Baidu, many Chinese companies are developing similar technology.
In February, Baidu’s Li told analysts on an earnings call that the company would first incorporate its version of the Ernie bot into its search engine and launch the product to the public in March.
According to Li, the company also plans to use AI technology in content creation. Baidu is backing him one of China’s leading video streaming platforms. Yew.
It wasn’t immediately clear how Baidu’s Ernie bot and AI capabilities compare to ChatGPT’s.
OpenAI said this week that its GPT-4 can beat 90% of humans on the SAT, the US college entrance exam.
