On Thursday, Baidu’s stock plunged by up to 10% when the company unveiled only a pre-recorded video of its AI chatbot Ernie in the first public launch of China’s version of ChatGPT. Baidu, headquartered in Beijing, had been hyping up Ernie’s potential to revolutionize its business by integrating generative artificial intelligence into its search engine and other offerings. However, the event left millions of viewers wondering if Baidu’s chatbot could rival ChatGPT.
Baidu Launches Ernie Bot
Baidu’s founder, Robin Li, recently presented the company’s new chatbot, Ernie, during a widely-publicized news conference. Li demonstrated Ernie’s abilities by narrating pre-typed questions that the chatbot had answered in real-time, standing next to an open chat screen. However, Li did acknowledge that the company was only showcasing a demo of the technology that it had prepared in advance.
Li announced that Ernie would soon be available for selected users to test, but he did not provide a timeline for the full public release. Instead, Baidu will begin with a limited release to its business partners.
Competition from US Tech Giants
The launch of Ernie comes at a time when US-based groups, such as OpenAI and Google, are continuing to make significant progress in their development of generative AI. This week, OpenAI released GPT-4, its latest AI model, claiming that it outperforms some humans on challenging professional exams, such as the US bar exam. Microsoft is already integrating GPT-4 into its Bing search engine and other offerings, while various US companies are testing the technology in their workplaces and products.
Baidu, along with other Chinese tech giants, is racing to launch its own domestic version of ChatGPT. However, analysts believe that Baidu’s extensive investment in AI and natural language learning technology development has provided them with an early advantage.
During the presentation, Li acknowledged that there were instances where they were pleasantly surprised by the technology, while other times there were obvious errors. However, he emphasized that one thing is certain: the technology is advancing at a rapid pace.
During Li’s speech on the WeChat social media app, where 2 million people were watching, some viewers expressed disappointment in the live comments. The majority of comments were about the decline in Baidu’s share price, and minute-by-minute quips about it took over the feed.
Li stated that any company could get closer to their customers with Baidu’s strong ability to comprehend and express language, and it would have an impact on every person. However, at the end of the 45-minute demonstration, WeChat users expressed disappointment with comments such as “That’s it?” and Baidu employees also shared the same sentiment about the rollout.
Baidu Struggles to Catch Up
According to two individuals, for several months, Baidu devoted its internal resources to developing Ernie, including reallocating most of the servers running Nvidia’s powerful A100 chips to the AI team. Two individuals familiar with Baidu’s AI efforts said that the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November caught the company off guard, as they had previously not believed that the US group had significantly superior technology.
The launch of ChatGPT prompted Baidu to work tirelessly to catch up and fine-tune Ernie with human feedback, a critical step in enhancing ChatGPT’s accuracy and fluency, according to individuals close to Baidu.
