Chinese multinational technology company Baidu has announced plans to roll out its Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot “Ernie Bot” into its search services in March.
The company disclosed that the chatbot is still undergoing internal testing, and once it is completed, it will be made available to the public. In an internal memo, Baidu’s CEO Robin Li disclosed that the Ernie bot will be integrated across all of Baidu’s operations, including its search and cloud services.
In his words, “AI technology has reached a tipping point and all industries will inevitably go through a transformation. Baidu stands as the best example of the long-term growth of China’s AI market and is advancing at the forefront of this new wave. We will embed Ernie bot into Baidu search first and we’ll open it to the public in March”.
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He added that AI-generated content will help Baidu accumulate more short videos on the platform over time. And a direct benefit would be increasing video viewership and ad revenue.
During an earnings call, he disclosed that the company is working on a revolutionary version of Baidu search built upon the Ernie bot that incorporates generative AI into its search algorithm as well as content creation, and various interactive features. “Users will soon be able to interact directly with the new generative large language model”, he added
The company’s stock price in New York jumped nearly 7% in pre-market trading Wednesday to more than $150 a share. It reported revenues of 33.1 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) for the quarter that ended in December, about level with the same period of 2021.
It is however interesting to note that Baidu’s AI Chatbot Ernie, which means “Enhanced representation through knowledge Integration” was introduced in 2019. The app has gradually grown to be able to perform tasks including language understanding, language generation, and text-to-image.
Baidu has been a first mover in China on other trends. In late 2021, when the meta verse became a buzzword, the company launched XiRang, which it described as China’s first met averse platform. However, the platform was widely criticized for not offering a high-level immersive experience, but Baidu said it was a work in progress.
Lately, the company has been investing heavily in AI technology, including Cloud services, Chips, and autonomous driving, as it looks to diversify its revenue sources.
After the successful launch of Microsoft-backed ChatGPT and Google’s AI Chatbot Bard, Baidu and other Chinese tech companies have announced their upcoming release of a ChatGPT-style bot in the coming months.
Recently, with users raving about Open Ai Chatbot ChatGPT, using generative AI has no doubt created a megatrend that will revolutionize many businesses and Baidu is well positioned to capitalize on the AI rave among users.