A year following the debut of its ChatGPT-like Ernie bot, Chinese search engine giant Baidu has unveiled initiatives aimed at fostering the development of artificial intelligence (AI) applications among local communities.
During Baidu’s annual AI developers conference, CEO Robin Li highlighted China’s robust infrastructure for AI development, citing its vast user base of one billion internet users, advanced foundation models, diverse AI application scenarios, and comprehensive industrial system.
“Everyone can be a developer,” Li stated during his address, emphasizing the accessibility of AI development opportunities.
While some observers note China’s lag behind the U.S. in AI capabilities, others underscore the country’s strength in applying technology to various sectors, such as next-day e-commerce and rapid food delivery.
Baidu’s latest AI tools enable individuals without coding expertise to create generative AI-powered chatbots tailored for specific functions. These chatbots can be seamlessly integrated into websites, Baidu search engine results, and other online platforms. This differs from OpenAI‘s GPTs, which primarily operate within the ChatGPT interface, offering custom-built chatbots for diverse tasks like recommending movies and troubleshooting code.
The fundamental Baidu tools are available for free up to a certain usage limit, similar to Google’s cloud and AI functions. OpenAI, on the other hand, charges a monthly fee for the latest ChatGPT version and its utilization for computer programs, while the older ChatGPT 3.5 model is accessible for free but lacks access to custom-built GPTs.
Additionally, Baidu introduced three new iterations of its Ernie AI model, namely “Speed,” “Lite,” and “Tiny,” providing developers with selective access based on task complexity.
Bo Du, Managing Director at WestSummit Capital Management, remarked, “It feels like their focus is on building the entire native AI development ecosystem, providing a full set of development tools and platform solutions.”
Since its launch in March last year, Baidu’s Ernie bot has garnered over 200 million users, with computer programs accessing the underlying AI model 200 million times daily. Moreover, more than 85,000 business clients have leveraged Baidu’s AI cloud platform to develop 190,000 AI applications.
The showcased use cases during Baidu’s conference primarily revolved around consumer-facing applications, including tourism, content creation, and scheduling meetings.
Furthermore, Baidu highlighted partnerships with companies like Buysmart.AI, winner of Baidu’s AI competition, which utilizes ChatGPT for an online shopping assistant integrated with Chinese social media platform Weibo.
Buysmart.AI co-founder Andy Qiu noted, “Personally, I think that Ernie 4.0 has a better grasp of Chinese than ChatGPT 3.5,” highlighting differences in language understanding.
Looking ahead, Baidu CEO Li emphasized the future integration of various AI models, termed “mixture of experts” or MoE, for large-scale AI applications. He also underscored Baidu’s prowess in AI-generated code, a significant area of interest for tech companies worldwide.
Despite global enthusiasm for generative AI, concerns about semiconductor shortages persist. Baidu, however, remains optimistic about its AI chip reserve and its ability to enhance Ernie in the coming years.
Baidu is scheduled to release its first-quarter results on May 16.