Status: 03/16/2023 1:49 p.m
Baidu, Google’s rival from China, has introduced its new ChatGPT competitor “Ernie”. But the debut disappointed the high expectations and led to a price slide on the stock exchange.
In the race for technological leadership in artificial intelligence (AI), China has suffered a setback for the time being. Google rival Baidu’s ChatGPT rival named Ernie disappointed in its debut.
In five short promotional videos, the Chinese search engine operator presented how Ernie, among other things, answered questions about a popular Chinese science fiction novel, calculated mathematical formulas and created images and videos based on a few keywords.
“We can’t say it’s perfect,” said Baidu CEO Robin Li. “So why are we introducing it today? Because the market demands it.” He reacted to Ernie with skepticism. The shares of the technology group slipped by more than six percent in Hong Kong.
Interest from 650 companies
Despite the disappointment, Baidu wants to make Ernie available to selected users immediately. Companies can build the AI software into their own products running 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 Chinese-dominated Internet search engine and numerous other offerings.
AI as an important future field in China
The government in Beijing sees AI as an important future field and wants to give developers great freedom. Experts see this area alongside the chip industry as another field in the struggle with the USA for technological supremacy.
However, Baidu boss Li warned against looking at the current presentation of his AI through geopolitical glasses. “Ernie Bot is not an instrument of confrontation between China and the United States.”
AI race with the USA
Companies from the USA are ahead of the People’s Republic when it comes to AI. Microsoft has already built ChatGPT into its Bing search engine and wants to use the technology in all applications in the Office package. A few days ago, the Microsoft holding OpenAI presented a new version of the software underlying ChatGPT – GPT-4.
Google counters this with “Bard” and also incorporates AI capabilities into its Internet search and office programs. With the help of a “magic wand” it should be possible to create summaries of e-mails or texts, among other things.
OpenAI triggered a real hype with its ChatGPT tool, which was presented in November last year. Alongside the USA, China is considered a leader in research into artificial intelligence. Corporations like Baidu have invested billions in this area in recent years.