In March, Chinese search giant Baidu is set to launch an artificial intelligence chatbot service similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The chatbot will be initially embedded into Baidu’s main search services and will allow users to receive conversation-style search results much like OpenAI’s popular platform.
This move by Baidu is part of a larger effort by the company to transition from online marketing to deeper technology and to revive its growth in the mobile era, where it has lagged behind its rivals in areas such as mobile advertising, video and social media.
Baidu’s AI research has been backed by billions of dollars in investment and its upcoming chatbot will be built on its Ernie system, a large-scale machine-learning model that has been trained on data over several years.
The company has not yet decided on a name for the tool.
The debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has sparked a race among tech giants in the US and China to adopt AI.
Companies like Microsoft are investing billions in developing real-world AI applications, while others are capitalizing on the hype to raise funds.
The popularity of ChatGPT has also attracted the interest of Chinese internet users, despite the heavily censored domestic internet in China.
In addition to Baidu, several Chinese start-ups are also exploring generative AI and have attracted investment from firms like Sequoia and Sinovation Ventures.
Baidu is part of a group of Chinese internet companies, which also includes Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings and ByteDance, that control much of China’s internet.
Apart from AI research, Baidu is also developing autonomous driving technology.