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According to a person familiar with the situation, Baidu Inc. intends to launch an artificial intelligence chatbot service similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT. This could be China's most prominent entry into a race sparked by the tech phenomenon.
According to the person, who requested anonymity to discuss private information, China's largest search engine company plans to launch a ChatGPT-style application in March, initially integrating it into its main search services. Users will be able to obtain search results similar to those found on OpenAI's well-known platform through the use of the tool, whose name has yet to be decided.
In an effort to shift from online marketing to more in-depth technology, Baidu has spent billions of dollars on research into artificial intelligence (AI). According to the person, the company's upcoming ChatGPT-like tool will be built on its Ernie system, a massive machine learning model that has been trained on data for several years. A representative for Baidu declined to speak.
Since its public launch in November, OpenAI's artificial intelligence tool, ChatGPT, has lit up the internet. Within days, it had more than a million users and sparked a debate about the role of AI in homes, offices, and schools. While some are taking advantage of the hype to raise funds, others, like Microsoft Corp., are attempting to develop real-world applications with billion-dollar investments. After Buzzfeed Inc. announced plans to incorporate ChatGPT into its content, the company's shares increased by more than double this month.
A significant portion of China's internet is controlled by Baidu, Tencent Holdings Ltd., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and ByteDance Ltd. After becoming increasingly behind its larger competitors in areas like mobile advertising, video, and social media, the search company has been attempting to revive growth in the mobile era. The search giant is currently working on autonomous driving technology in addition to AI research.
Chinese internet users were also intrigued by ChatGPT, who, like people from other countries, shared screenshots of surprising conversations with the AI bot on local social media. This is despite a domestic internet that is largely isolated from the rest of the world and heavily censored—a model that has enabled Baidu to flourish as a local version of Google, Amazon, and Facebook.
Several Chinese startups, in addition to Baidu, are investigating generative AI and have attracted investors like Sequoia and Sinovation Ventures.