- The ChatGPT-like Ernie bot was introduced by the Chinese internet company Baidu a year ago. Recently, the business unveiled tools to encourage locals to develop AI applications.
- Recently, Baidu unveiled AI tools that allow non-programmers to create generative AI-powered chatbots for specific applications. Afterward, websites, Baidu search engine results, or other online portals can incorporate these chatbots.
China’s SHENZHEN This Monday, Chinese search engine operator Baidu introduced tools to support locals in creating artificial intelligence applications, one year after the company released its ChatGPT-like Ernie bot.
CEO Robin Li began Tuesday’s Baidu annual AI developers conference by stating, “In China today, there are 1 billion internet users, strong foundation models, sufficient AI application scenarios, and the most complete industrial system in the world.”
In Mandarin, he declared, “Everyone can be a developer.”
Some highlight how the Chinese market is stronger in terms of technology application, while many highlight how China’s artificial intelligence capabilities lag behind those of the United States. Consider 30-minute food delivery and next-day online shopping, for instance.
Those without any coding experience may now design generative AI-powered chatbots for particular purposes using Baidu’s recently released AI tools. These chatbots can subsequently be integrated into websites, Baidu search engine results, or other online portals. This contrasts with a related technology called GPTs, which OpenAI introduced earlier this year. GPTs are custom chatbots that operate within the ChatGPT interface and can do tasks like recommending movies and correcting code.
Like many AI and Google Cloud capabilities, the basic Baidu tools are usually free to test, subject to a usage cap. The most recent version of ChatGPT and the ability to use it for computer programs are available for a monthly subscription from OpenAI. Even though the previous ChatGPT 3.5 variant lacks access to the GPTs, it is still free to use.
This week, Baidu also unveiled three new iterations of its Ernie AI model, dubbed “Speed,” “Lite,” and “Tiny,” which programmers can choose to use in different ways depending on the task’s complexity.
According to Bo Du, managing director of WestSummit Capital Management, “It feels like their focus is on building the entire native AI development ecosystem, providing a full set of development tools and platform solutions.”
Since its inception in March of last year, Baidu has announced this week that the Ernie bot has amassed more than 200 million users and that 200 million computer programs contact the underlying AI model every day. According to the company, 190,000 AI apps have been developed on its AI cloud platform by more than 85,000 enterprise clients.
How technology is being applied
Among the uses showcased by Baidu this week were travel and producing content such as books and meeting plans aimed at consumers.
At a demonstration hall, Baidu’s business departments demonstrated how AI technologies can drive search engine traffic to an interactive buying guide or virtual characters doing live streams.
PurchaseSmart.AI employs the technology for an online shopping assistant linked to the Chinese social media network Weibo. AI won Baidu’s AI competition last year. According to the startup, ChatGPT is being used as a stand-alone interactive e-commerce application in the US.
“In my opinion, Ernie 4.0 is more proficient in Mandarin than ChatGPT 3.5,” stated Andy Qiu, co-founder of Buysmart.AI, during an interview. That’s based on an interpretation of his Mandarin-language comments by CNBC.
According to Qiu, American consumers are currently more interested in AI products than Chinese consumers are. However, he acknowledged that there is still an opportunity for development in terms of gaining users’ trust in AI helpers and persuading them to place a purchase.
A humanoid robot created by Shenzhen-based UBTech Robotics that could read written texts and comprehend commands using Baidu’s Ernie AI model was also on show.
At this point, it’s unclear how such AI applications may materially alter business. However, Baidu is the most recent to release more resources so that users can experiment more readily and affordably.
Smaller AI models can be used by voice assistants, internet-connected gadgets, and customer service to respond to users promptly, as noted by Helen Chai, managing director at CIC Consulting.
She continued by saying that small AI models can be trained on particular data to attain performance similar to larger AI models in scenarios like legal advice or medical diagnosis.
Using the technical phrase “mixture of experts,” or MoE, Baidu CEO Li stated that large-scale AI-based applications in the future will be built on a combination of models.
Additionally, he highlighted Baidu’s prowess in writing AI-generated code, an area where Silicon Valley tech companies believe generative AI has the greatest potential.
According to Baidu, since the tech giant launched its “Comate” AI coding assistance a year ago, the tool has contributed to 27% of the freshly written code within the firm. More than 10,000 corporate Comate users, including the audio streaming app Ximalaya, the IT services provider iSoftStone, and Shanghai Mitsubishi Elevator, have reportedly adopted over half of the code generated by the program, according to Baidu.
The worldwide scramble to build generative AI has led to a scarcity of semiconductors, which are required to supply the processing power. The United States’ limits on chip exports place additional burdens on Chinese enterprises.
During the main conference session, Baidu did not address a scarcity of computing power particularly. Baidu’s head of AI cloud, Dou Shen, mentioned “uncertainties” in the chip supply chain during his lecture and revealed that Baidu has a platform that can leverage the power of multiple chip types.
Baidu’s AI chip reserve “enables us to continue enhancing Ernie for the next one or two years,” Li stated during a February earnings call. On May 16, the company is scheduled to report its first-quarter results.
