Baidu rolls out ChatGPT rival to public

BEIJING

China's Baidu rolled out its ChatGPT rival ERNIE Bot to the public yesterday, in a major leap for the country's tech sector as it aims to cash in on the artificial intelligence gold rush.

The Chinese government introduced fresh regulations this month for AI developers, aiming to allow them to stay in the race with the likes of ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Microsoft while tightly controlling information online.

ERNIE Bot is the first domestic AI app to be fully available to the public in China.

It is not available outside the country.

"In addition to ERNIE Bot, Baidu is set to launch a suite of new AI-native apps that allow users to fully experience the four core abilities of generative AI: understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory,” the company said in a statement. 

The chatbot was released in March but its availability was limited.

Generative AI apps including chatbots such as ERNIE are trained on vast amounts of data as well as their interactions with users so they can answer questions, including complex ones, in human-like language.

When tested by AFP, ERNIE Bot easily answered mundane questions such as "What is the capital of China" and "Do you have any hobbies."

But on sensitive topics such as China's bloody clampdown on the pro-democracy protesters at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, it said: "Let's change the topic and start again."

The rapid success of U.S.-based OpenAI's ChatGPT - which is banned in China - sparked an international race to develop rival apps, including image and video generators, but also widespread alarm about the potential for abuse and disinformation.

Baidu is one of China's biggest tech companies, but has faced competition from other firms such as Tencent in various sectors.

In addition to AI, it has also looked to grow its cloud computing business and develop autonomous driving tech.