technology

Baidu surges 15% after disclosing to roll out ChatGPT-like chatbot

Baidu surges 15% after disclosing to roll out ChatGPT-like chatbot

Baidu, the well-known Chinese technology leader, reportedly jumped more than 15% after confirming that it was on schedule to publicly launch its ChatGPT-like service in March, fueling speculation over China's most notable entry in the competition to develop lifelike AI (artificial intelligence) bots.

Apparently, its shares jumped the highest in approximately eight months when the company announced the service's name, ‘Ernie Bot’ or ‘Wenxin Yiyan,’ in English. Internal testing ought to be finished in time for the rollout early next month, according to a statement from Baidu.

Chinese AI-related stocks, like Beijing Deep Glint Technology and Cloudwalk Technology, have recently sparked the rumors that Baidu will enter the popular generative AI sector.

The craze is an indication of the growing investor interest in ChatGPT, which has drawn significant investments from corporations, such as Microsoft. The growing number of large and small companies are vying with Baidu to surpass the start-up in the unexpectedly lucrative field of AI services.

Reportedly, the Ernie bot will initially be included in the primary search offerings of China's top search engine provider. Users of the tool will be able to obtain search results that are conversational in nature and resemble those from the well-known OpenAI platform.

Baidu has made notable financial investments in artificial intelligence research as part of a multibillion-dollar effort to move from online marketing to more sophisticated technology. The company's Ernie system, a big machine learning framework that has been created on data over many years will form the foundation of the next ChatGPT-like platform.

As per reports, Microsoft committed to investing $10 billion in OpenAI in January, making it one of the biggest start-up investments in history. Additionally, less than three months into 2023, many generative AI firms have funded or are reportedly in discussions to raise a total of more than US$700 million.

An ongoing list kept by the Homebrew AI Club, an organization meant as a meeting point for AI workers, includes over 150 start-ups in the sector.

Source credit: https://www.straitstimes.com/business/baidu-surges-as-hope-mounts-over-chinese-answer-to-chatgpt

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Pursuing her professional career as a content writer for over two years now, Pooja Sharma is endowed with a post-graduate degree in English Literature. The articles that she writes are a balanced blend of her ever-growing love of language and the technical expertise that she has gained over the years. Currently Pooja pens insightful articles for Newsorigins and numerous other websites, covering subjects such as business, finance, and technology.