Baidu Extends Ernie's AI Chatbot Capability To Focus On Industry

Answer result for Ernie's chatbot from Baidu. (photo: twitter @baidu_inc)

JAKARTA - On Monday, March 27, China's search engine Baidu shared a pre-recorded video of Ernie's AI-powered chatbot in compiling financial reports and making a PowerPoint presentation, as well as her ability to focus on other industries.

According to an image shared by Baidu spokesperson on a media group on WeChat, China's most widely used text messaging service, this Chinese chatbot has a wider variety of skills than previously featured when it was launched nearly two weeks ago.

When launched, this product, such as ChatGPT, is shown to be able to produce images with text instructions, write poetry, and produce audio in Chinese dialects.

ERNIE Bot's answer is the 8th day, did you get it correct?😉 https://t.co/2sSulIjjDB pic.twitter.com/zEPuwbaHv7

— Baidu Inc. (@Baidu_Inc) March 26, 2023

Videos shared this Monday also show a chatbot powered by a generating artificial intelligence (AI) producing a virtual travel plan and live streamer that resembles humans who can advertise products using scripts that are tailored to user needs.

The video comes from a closed meeting held by Baidu's AI Cloud division for a group of companies testing versions of chatbots focused on industry.

The meeting was originally meant to be a live broadcast product launch open to the media and the public, but its format was changed to prioritize "strong demand" from more than 120,000 companies that have signed up to test Ernie's bots, the company said in a statement on Monday morning, adding that this would be the first closed meeting of many similar gatherings.

This change, however, caused Baidu's Hong Kong-listed stake to drop to 4.5% on Monday morning.

More companies will be able to register to test the chatbot version focused on Ernie's industry starting March 31, while regular versions of the app remain open to testing for lucky users getting the invitation code.

Trials conducted by Reuters show that regular versions have good Chinese mastery but result in fact errors and avoid answering questions about politics.

Bot Ernie, which is currently the most similar product to the ChatGPT developed in the United States, was launched on March 16 by Baidu CEO Robin Li, who gave a live presentation guiding journalists through a series of pre-recorded demonstrations featuring China's different chatbot capabilities.

The company's share price fell when the presentation was still live but recovered the following day, due in part to strong demand from the corporate sector in China.