Internet giant Baidu misses launch of Chinese 'ChatGPT'

Baidu, the first Chinese search engine. © REUTERS

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The Chinese company Baidu unveiled, Thursday, March 16, 2023, its conversational robot, competitor to ChatGPT. An artificial brain that has not been demonstrated. As a result, Baidu's shares plunged as much as 10% on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

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From our correspondent in Beijing, Stéphane Lagarde

Baidu is not at its first attempt at artificial intelligence. After the driverless taxi robots, after the small intelligent speakers "Xiaodu" that say the weather and answer the questions of many households in Chinese megacities, here is "Ernie Bot", the conversational robot supposed to compete with ChatGPT in the long term.

Except that Robin Li, the boss of Baidu, does not like this idea of the speed race with the United States. The artificial brain was in the boxes of in-house engineers for a long time, according to the boss of Baidu:

« It is not a high-tech confrontation tool between China and the United States, but the natural culmination of the work of several generations of Baidu technicians who pursue their dream of changing the world through technology. »

No speed race according to Robin Li, but the fact remains that this time, Baidu may have been too fast to unveil its robot. ChatGPT has aroused great enthusiasm in China, misunderstanding also sometimes on a Chinese delay in this area. Chinese tech giants Tencent, Alibaba and JD.com are under pressure to release their conversational robot made in China as soon as possible.

An unconvincing launch

For now, only a Mandarin version of "Ernie Bot" has been presented to the press, without demonstration of his abilities, which Robin Li has recognized as inferior to his American predecessor. Other parameters to take into account: artificial intelligence at the service of the population scares censors and robots necessarily get stuck on issues deemed sensitive.

The interface includes some dialects in Mandarin, its designers said. But they acknowledged that she is not as good in English. This was enough to unscrew Baidu's share price on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange where the group is listed.

►Also listen: GPT chat the robot that fascinates and worries

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