People interact with a Baidu artificial intelligence robot near the company logo at its headquarters in Beijing, China, April 23, 2021.
Florence Rowe | Reuters
BEIJING – CHINESE TECHNOLOGY COMPANY baidu On Thursday, it showed the public the capabilities of its Chinese-language ChatGPT alternative, while warning of its imperfections.
During a live launch event, Baidu CEO Robin Li emphasized that the company’s product — the Ernie bot — is not perfect. Hong Kong stocks fell nearly 6.4%and hit its lowest close since Jan. 19 amid broad losses in Asian shares.
Lee highlighted how the product will improve through the ability of users to provide feedback.
Baidu is prioritizing initial Ernie bot access to what it calls 650 ecosystem business partners, including some media companies, banks and auto companies. Baidu has a large enterprise cloud business and said users of its AI cloud can apply for access to Ernie bot’s application programming interface.
Within an hour of Ernie’s bot launch, Baidu said 30,000 enterprise customers had joined the waiting list for access to the chatbot. CNBC, other media outlets and the general public were not immediately granted access.
Microsoft-Support OpenAI this week published GPT-4, The latest version of the artificial intelligence technology behind its popular ChatGPT chatbot. The bot was initially released to the public for free in November, with individuals wanting to use GPT-4’s capabilities paying $20 a month.
ChatGPT is able to converse in a human-like manner and generate everything from content summaries to business recommendations.
While ChatGPT is free for anyone who can set up an account, people must join a waiting list to try out Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot, which uses OpenAI technology, launched last month.Some users reported a Horrible experience.
Baidu’s Li said the Ernie bot could have similar problems if used enough, and it’s not perfect. But he noted that the model was trained on a set of 550 billion facts.
AI is not meant to highlight the competition between the US and China, but the result of Baidu’s efforts to “change the world with technology,” Li said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.
Baidu’s Hong Kong-listed shares are still up 12% so far this year.
Shares of Microsoft are up about 11% so far this year, while Class A shares of Google parent Alphabet are up nearly 9%.
Major Tech Stocks Related to ChatGPT
ChatGPT has attracted local interest in China, although it has not yet officially launched in China. ChatGPT does have Chinese functions, although it is not at the same level as English.
Beijing has been pushing for national technological self-sufficiency while maintaining censorship and increasing oversight of data.
In addition to Baidu, many Chinese companies are Develop similar techniques.
In February, Baidu’s Li told analysts on an earnings call that the company would be the first to embed its version of — Ernie the Robot — Enter the company’s search engine and open the product to the public in March.
The company also plans to use artificial intelligence technology for content creation, Li said. Baidu backs one of China’s major video streaming platforms, IQIYI.
It’s unclear how Baidu’s Ernie bot and AI capabilities compare to ChatGPT.
OpenAI said this week that its GPT-4 could Beat 90% of People on the SAT, America’s College Admission Test