Is China’s Baidu chatbot catching up with ChatGPT

Baidu has unveiled its latest AI chatbot, ERNIE 4.0, at the Baidu World 2023 technology conference in Beijing. The company claims that the updated chatbot can rival the capabilities of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. ERNIE 4.0 has been upgraded to enhance its performance in understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory. Baidu showcased the chatbot’s abilities in comprehension, generation of content, reasoning for problem-solving, and memorization of information. Dr. Haifeng Wang, Baidu’s Chief Technology Officer, reported that ERNIE 4.0’s overall performance has improved by almost 30% during beta testing. However, the new version of ERNIE is currently only accessible to invited users on ERNIE Bot. Baidu has also introduced numerous other generative AI innovations in applications such as Baidu Search, Baidu GBI, Information Stream, Baidu Wenku, Baidu Drive, and Baidu Maps, which have similar capabilities to updates from Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI. The company aims to make China a leader in AI development by 2030 and has received commitments from other Chinese tech companies, such as Alibaba and Huawei, to contribute to this goal. Baidu is also focusing on providing infrastructure, like the Qianfan Foundation Model Platform, to empower enterprise customers in their AI development efforts. With China’s strict regulations on copyright, privacy, and data security, businesses are expected to have more confidence in using these Chinese innovations compared to foreign technology companies. Baidu’s senior management envisions a future where their mobile ecosystem, connecting billions of users and millions of partners, will lead in the development and implementation of native AI applications. Furthermore, Baidu already operates the world’s largest autonomous driving service platform, Apollo Go, with over 4 million accumulated rides available to the public. Baidu’s driverless Robotaxis can be found in several Chinese cities, including Beijing, Wuhan, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.