Bloomberg: Chinese tech giant Baidu is to launch ChatGPT-style bot

Baidu, China’s largest search engine company, is planning to roll out an artificial intelligence chatbot service similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, reported Bloomberg on January 30.

The company will debut a ChatGPT-style application in March, initially embedding it into its main search services. The tool, whose name hasn’t been decided, will allow users to get conversation-style search results much like OpenAI’s popular platform, according to people familiar with the matter.

Baidu CEO Robin Li raised ChatGPT as an example of where the tech giant can take the lead during an internal talk in December. “I’m so glad that the technology we are pondering every day can attract so many people’s attention. That’s not easy,” he said. He warned that the commercialization of generative AI by making it a “product that everyone needs” could be challenging though.

Baidu has spent billions of dollars researching AI in a years-long effort to transition from online marketing to deeper technology. Its Ernie system - a large-scale machine-learning model that’s been trained on data over several years - will be the foundation of its upcoming ChatGPT-like tool, said the Bloomberg report.

Apart from Baidu, several Chinese startups are also exploring generative AI, and have attracted investors such as Sequoia and Sinovation Ventures.

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tool, has lit up the internet since its public debut in November, amassing more than a million users within days and touching off a debate about the role of AI in schools, offices and homes. Companies including Microsoft are investing billions to try and develop real-world applications, while others are capitalizing on the hype to raise funds.

ChatGPT also piqued the interest of Chinese internet users, who like people elsewhere shared screenshots of surprising conversations with the AI bot on local social media, according to Bloomberg.

(Chen HX)