Baidu CEO says its AI model bests OpenAI’s GPT-4 in Imperial Chinese poetry, citing famed Tang-era style

Robin Li Yanhong said his company’s Ernie model can produce better results when asked to write poetry following a Tang-era metre

Baidu is betting big on its AI capabilities at a time when OpenAI’s big advances have led to questions about how China can catch up

Reading Time:2 minutes

Baidu CEO Robin Li speaks during the ‘Prompt the World’ artificial intelligence event at Shougang Park in Beijing on October 17, 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 9:30pm, 11 Mar 2024Updated: 11:07pm, 11 Mar 2024

Baidu’s Ernie 4 artificial intelligence (AI) model, one of China’s leading large language models (LLMs), has outperformed similar technologies from US peers in generating Chinese texts such as those in the style of Imperial Chinese poetry, according to Robin Li Yanhong, co-founder and CEO of the internet search giant.

In an hour-long programme aired by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) on Saturday, Li said that Ernie 4 outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-4 in Chinese-language tasks, including the production of poems following the Tang dynasty-era qinyuanchun scheme, a 114-character poem with a meter that uses doubled-up tones.

“Many LLMs can compose poetry, but if they are asked to write a poem using the chant of qinyuanchun, it will be confused,” he said in the interview.

Li’s comments come as China’s artificial intelligence industry has been gripped by a sense of anxiety that it is lagging behind the US, concerns that were recently exacerbated by OpenAI’s launch of its text-to-video tool Sora.

China’s domestic market is largely shielded by protectionist and censorship policies that prohibit non-vetted AI models and applications, leaving the market of 1 billion internet consumers open to players like Baidu, the leading contender in China’s efforts to create an answer to ChatGPT.

Li’s interview came a week ahead of the one-year anniversary of Ernie’s initial release in March 2023. Over the past year, Baidu has repeatedly made public comments about its AI’s ability to match or even surpass OpenAI’s models, claims that have drawn online criticism from users.

The number of Ernie Bot users exceeded 100 million last year, Li said in his CCTV interview. Li also said the development of AI technology will make programmers obsolete.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x