Made-in-China AI bot fails to impress at launch, shares drop 10%

Baidu demonstrated the ability of a pre-recorded Ernie (advanced representation of knowledge integration) bot to solve mathematical calculations, speak in Chinese dialects, and generate videos and images via text prompts.

However, Baidu CEO Robin Li also believes that the chatbot is ‘not perfect’ and may not be able to compete. chatgpt or GPT-4. However, he emphasized that the product will eventually improve with user feedback.

“I can’t say we’re quite ready. Benchmarking Ernie bot against ChatGPT, or even GPT-4, is a high bar… none of the big tech firms have made it on a global scale. Baidu is the first,” new agency Bloomberg quoted Li as saying.

The Chinese tech company will initially launch Ernie Bot for its ‘650 ecosystem business partners’, while Baidu’s AI Cloud users can apply for access to Ernie Bot’s API.

Read also: Users can now try GPT-4 without having to go through a waiting list. This way

Baidu’s attempt to challenge OpenAI’s dominance in the generative AI-based chatbot space is the first such effort by a Chinese company. While there are many other big tech groups in this ChinaLike Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., Baidu is seen as a leader in leading the country’s efforts to counter American companies in the field of AI-based chatbots.

Microsoft supported OpenAI on March 14 Unveiled Its next generation language model GPT-4 for the masses. OpenAI claims that the language model has more human capabilities, longer memory, and versatility compared to the GPT-3.5 model.

Several popular companies such as Khan Academy, Duolingo, Morgan Stanley, Be My Eyes, Microsoft’s Bing and Quora’s Po have already announced the integration of GPT-4 into their products.

Since its launch in November last year, ChatGPT has become a viral sensation creating wonder and bewilderment among the masses. It has also fueled a generative AI-based technology race between Microsoft and Google.

(with inputs from agencies)