Baidu unveils China’s answer to ChatGPT with no live preview and limited beta, dashing hopes and sending stock tumbling

Baidu founder Robin Li spoke for 30 minutes, relying on slides and pre-recorded video to unveil Ernie Bot’s capabilities
Baidu followed Microsoft’s Bing and Google’s Bard in eschewing live demonstrations, as rivals grapple to face off Open AI’s ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence

Coco Fengin BeijingandChe Panin Beijing

Published: 4:27pm, 16 Mar, 2023

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Chinese internet search giant Baidu has released to select users a beta version of Ernie Bot, its much-anticipated answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but skipped a live demonstration that is typically the linchpin of technology launches from Silicon Valley to Barcelona, a letdown that sent its stock sliding in Hong Kong amid a declining market.

Company founder and CEO Robin Li Yanhong spoke on stage for about 30 minutes during the event in Beijing on Thursday afternoon, which was also broadcast live online. Instead of demonstrating the tech himself, Li’s talk was accompanied by PowerPoint slides showing what the bot is capable of, including writing company slogans, solving math problems, and even generating audio and video. Recordings of Ernie Bot at work were also shown.

Baidu shares were down by as much as 10 per cent during Li’s presentation. Shares closed down 6.4 per cent for the day to HK$125.1 (US$15.94). This was in sharp contrast with last month, when the stock gained 15 per cent on the news that Baidu was working on a ChatGPT challenger, fanning hopes that one of China’s leading AI firms could unlock the potential of large language models in the country.

The event comes one day after OpenAI generated more excitement over its own AI tech by launching GPT-4, the latest and most advanced version of the start-up’s Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) language models.

ChatGPT-like AI is ‘difficult to achieve’, China’s tech minister says

To be sure, Baidu was not the first to eschew a live demonstration of its ChatGPT rival. Google’s February 7 launch of its conversational AI bot called Bard featured a pre-recorded demo and advance testing by a small group of trusted testers before its eventual roll-out. A factual error provided by Bard quickly became the subject of ridicule, helping to knock US$100 billion off the capitalisation of Google’s parent Alphabet.

Microsoft also used a pre-recorded clip during the launch of its new Bing search engine with built-in ChatGPT on the same day.

Robin Li, chairman and chief executive officer of Baidu Inc., during the launch of the company’s Earnie Bot in Beijing, on March 16, 2023. Photo: Bloomberg.

Ernie Bot, meanwhile, will initially only be available to some users who receive an invitation code. It will later be gradually opened to the public.

Li spent most of his time on stage going through slides explaining the potential of Baidu’s new piece of tech.

“According to my personal experience with Ernie Bot, I can’t say it’s perfect. The launch now is because there is market demand,” Li said. “The Ernie Bot isn’t a tool for China and the United States to rival, but a natural outcome achieved by generations of Baidu engineers while they dream to use technology to change the world.”

While the general public will not have access to Ernie Bot right away, Baidu said its cloud computing unit would immediately start making the application programming interface (API) available to corporate clients.

Baidu’s launch was both “brave” and “regretful”, said Li Zhi, director of the research institute of Beijing-based consultancy Analysys. “Baidu has been the first Chinese tech company to unveil a large language model after ChatGPT and GPT-4 … But it only showed video demos, which wasn’t as stunning as a live demonstration,” Li said.

ChatGPT has generated immense interest in China despite OpenAI not officially making it available in the market. It is able to answer queries in many languages, including both English and Chinese, something that appears to be a current limitation of Baidu’s bot.

Li said Ernie Bot “is good at processing Chinese language”, but its handling of English “isn’t as good”. Like other language models, Ernie Bot is trained on an immense amount of written material, but it is limited by being ring-fenced inside China’s censored internet environment largely managed by the so-called Great Firewall.

The Ernie model has “the most advanced natural language processing capability in the Chinese language”, the company said in a statement. “Its advancement is not only reflected in its understanding of the Chinese language, but also in its understanding of Chinese culture. Because of this, Baidu Ernie Bot will better suit the Chinese language and the China market than the models developed abroad.”

Baidu plans to integrate Ernie Bot across all of its existing businesses, starting with its signature search engine, the largest in China. The company intends to “reshape the way information is generated and presented”, Baidu said.

The technology will also be embedded into other services such as Baidu’s smart speaker Xiaodu, self-driving unit Apollo and video platform iQiyi.