In the race for technological leadership in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), China cannot hold out for the time being. Google rival Baidu’s ChatGPT rival “Ernie” exceeded expectations upon its debut on Thursday. In five short promotional videos, the operator showed how Ernie answered questions about a popular Chinese science fiction novel, calculated mathematical formulas and used keywords to create images and videos, among other things.
“We can’t say it’s perfect,” said Baidu CEO Robin Li. “So why are we introducing it today? Because the market demands it.”
The share price plummeted
Still, investors threw the company’s stock out of their deposits. In Hong Kong, they fell by 6.4 percent. “The presentation was more of a canned monologue than the interactive session people were expecting,” said Morningstar analyst Kai Wang. In addition, Baidu has not given a market launch date. His colleague Charlie Chai of the analysis company 86Research also expressed disappointment. However, he still considers Baidu a leader among China’s AI companies.
Baidu initially did not respond to the request for an assessment of the price drop. However, after the presentation, the company revealed that 30,000 commercial users had requested test access to date.
The first users already have access
According to the information, selected users can now access Ernie. Companies can build the AI software into their own products that run on the Baidu cloud. So far, 650 companies have expressed interest. The first contracts with Chinese state media and a Shaolin temple have already been signed. Baidu also wants to add AI capabilities to its China-dominated internet search engine and a host of other offerings.
The government in Beijing sees AI as an important future area and wants to give developers a lot of freedom. Experts see this area next to the chip industry as another area in the battle with the US for technological supremacy. However, Baidu boss Li warned not to look at the current presentation of his AI through a geopolitical lens. “Ernie Bot is not an instrument of confrontation between China and the United States.”
Companies from the United States are ahead of the People’s Republic when it comes to AI: Microsoft has already built ChatGPT, the trigger of the current hype, into its Bing search engine and wants to use the technology in all applications of the Office suite. A few days ago, the Microsoft holding company OpenAI presented a new version of the software underlying ChatGPT – GPT-4.
She can create content not only based on keywords, but also based on images. Google counters this with “Bard” and is also incorporating AI capabilities into its Internet search and office programs. With the help of a “magic wand” it should be possible, among other things, to create summaries of emails or text messages.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
