China's response to ChaptGPT was released today and received... mixed results. We've all heard just about everything there is to know about ChatGPT since it was in the hands of the general public and dominated the global conversation. The increasing popularity is pushing companies and startups to integrate it into their systems as soon as possible.
Whether or not they are cautious in the mad dash to integrate AI is another discussion in itself, but for now, we've been introduced to a new chatbot with a particularly sweet name: Ernie Bot. The new player in the AI game needs to be integrated into various applications.
The name Ernie is short for "Knowledge Integration Enhanced Representation" and he can perform a variety of tasks, such as solving basic math problems, writing poems, and creating images and videos. Baidu plans to integrate Ernie into its search engine, which is widely used in China. According to Reuters (opens in a new tab), other applications could include cloud computing, smart cars and home appliances.
According to Baidu, Ernie Bot is already available to some users, who have access to it through special invite codes. Companies interested in using the bot's services can do so through Baidu's cloud platform.
Right off the bat, Ernie seems to have surpassed ChatGPT in terms of features so far, at least on paper. However, the introduction of the chatbot was not very well received in the market. In fact, it received a lot of criticism for the limited presentation of the bot at launch, since most of what was shown was based on pre-recorded videos rather than "live" demos.
The presentation consisted of five videos of Ernie Bot answering questions about a very famous Chinese science fiction novel titled "The Three-Body Problem" and summarizing the story of the book. Ernie bot also developed his math skills and created a conference poster using text messages.
Baidu CEO Robin Li noted that “sure, it can't be said to be perfect” pointing to Ernie Bot and adding “Why are we introducing it today? Because the market demands it. Li is definitely right on that front, the demand for AI-powered chatbots like Ernie Bot and ChatGPT has never been higher and no one wants to be last in line.
Unfortunately, the company suffered a 10% drop in its shares while CEO Robin Li stepped in to strip more than €3bn of the tech giant's market valuation, a surprisingly poor response to the revelation if we've seen it. before.
We can attribute this to the "stale" nature of the presentation, which attendees said was scripted and the lack of a release date may have shaken some people's faith in Ernie Bot.
Hopefully, Baidu will get back to the drawing board and hit again. The capabilities on display during the presentation are incredibly impressive, and the ambitious levels of integration raise hopes that Ernie Bot could be a game changer in the AI scene.
Until now, the AI space has been dominated by English-speaking countries, so AI technology from non-Western countries would be a sight to behold, and having this international development would allow the technology to thrive.