ChatGPT: after Google, the Chinese Baidu is also preparing to draw its conversational AI

The Chinese giant Baidu has announced the launch of the test phase of its future conversational robot called “Ernie Bot”, future competitor of ChatGPT.

The now famous ChatGPT should quickly welcome new strong competitors in the conversational artificial intelligence market. Just hours after the announcement of Google and its “Bard”, powered by its in-house language model for dialog applications, another big name in global tech has entered the game. Baidu, the Chinese Google, has declared on Tuesday that his own robot, named “Ernie Bot”, had just started an internal test phase which should be completed in March.

The frenzy of the AI-powered chatbot

A bit like the metaverse a few months ago, all the major players in new technologies could in turn announce the imminent or forthcoming birth of their conversational AI, if only to flatter their investors. Google, as a giant among giants, had no choice but to quickly introduce Bard, now open to trusted testers, with expected mainstream availability. in the coming weeks “, as indicated by the Mountain View firm.

Baidu, for its part, explained on Tuesday that it had launched a test phase to develop its conversational robot, whose internal tests should be completed in early spring. The Middle Empire company is driven by the desire to offer its own AI to the general public without anyone really knowing when.

First a standalone app, then a search engine integration

We know, however, that Baidu’s idea is first to set up its AI as a standalone application. The company should then gradually insert it into its search engine, an intention also valid on the side of Google, which intends to follow the same process. In other words, Baidu wants to integrate the results generated by the chatbot into the queries launched by users of the search engine.

Since ChatGPT and Google are inaccessible in China (although workarounds exist), Baidu wants to provide the local market with its own conversational tool. A bit like the company had done with the metaverse and the creation of its subsidiary XiRang, launched at the end of 2021, to ride the wave of the virtual universe. The latter is however not really a success, even if Baidu promises to improve it gradually.

Source : Reuters