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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

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Baidu founder Robin Li asks Ernie Bot, a ChatGPT-like AI application, to generate a poster during a ceremony at the company’s Beijing headquarter on March 16, 2023. Photo: Handout
Coco Fengin BeijingandChe Panin Beijing
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.

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.
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