Chinas Baidu says will soon launch generative AI model to counter ChatGPT

Chinese search engine giant Baidu’s CEO Robin Li said on Friday that the company will “very soon” officially launch Ernie 3.5, a generative AI large-language model that will power Baidu’s ChatGPT-like app Ernie Bot and upgrade its search engine. Li made the announcement at the Zhongguancun Forum, one of China’s most well-known technology forums, around two months after Ernie Bot was first shown to the public to mixed reviews. Ernie 3.5 will take on the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard. Also Read: OpenAI Confirms Adult-Only ChatGPT With Custom Personalities And Erotic Conversations

Since then, Ernie Bot and other products powered by the company’s generative AI large-language model have remained in trial mode, with a select number of companies and users invited to test the products and provide feedback. “We will reconstruct Baidu’s mobile ecosystem with a native AI approach, to revamp the user experience across products and services like Baidu Search, Baidu App, Baidu Wenku, and Baidu E-commerce. This endeavour will spark a three-fold revolution in human-machine interaction, content creation, and marketing & commerce,” Jackson He, Senior Corporate Vice President of Baidu and GM of Baidu Mobile Ecosystem Group (MEG). Also Read: Forget ChatGPT And Gemini Nano Banana! Microsoft Launches MAI-Image-1 - The In House Text-To-Image Tool

The announcement by the Chinese behemoth comes days after the European Union decided to move ahead with its plan to bring the first set of rules to govern AI. The regulator is discussing how different governments can control AI and stop it from potentially becoming a concern for humanity. The countries that are a part of the European Union and the European Union have yet to start negotiations to iron out any differences. Since that would take some time, the European Commission and Google parent Alphabet have decided to voluntarily sign a pact that outlines rules against the use of AI. Also Read: UPI Meets ChatGPT: India Tests AI-Powered E-Commerce Payments Via OpenAI Partnership

EU industry chief Thierry Breton and Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai met in Brussels to bring voluntary regulation till the time the EU comes up with its laws to govern AI technologies. “Sundar and I agreed that we cannot afford to wait until AI regulation actually becomes applicable, and to work together with all AI developers to already develop an AI pact on a voluntary basis ahead of the legal deadline,” Breton said in a statement.

Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner for Competition, who also met Pichai, underlined the need to act together. “We need the AI Act as soon as possible. But AI technology evolves at extreme speed. So we need voluntary agreement on universal rules for AI now,” she said in a tweet.

— Written with inputs from Reuters