The launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI brings a sudden change to various existing products and applications. In less than three months, it has now been replaced by GPT-4 with integration on Microsoft Office, LinkedIn and Duolingo already done. The success of OpenAI forced Google, and Meta to launch their artificial intelligence in a hurry.
As announced last January, Baidu launched their artificial intelligence ERNIE Bot based on ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration) developed by them over a decade ago. According to Beidu CEO Robin Li, ERNIE Bot's capabilities are comparable to GPT-4. It has 550 billion data points that are used to provide accurate answers to questions given by users.
Because ERNIE Bot was launched for the Chinese market, it has the ability to understand several dialects used in the country. Like ChatGPT, ERNIE Bot can summarize books and suggest ideas. Although it has been announced, Baidu says ERNIE Bot is not ready to be given to the public.
So far over 600 companies have shown interest in using it in closed tests. The integration of ERNIE Bot on Baidu products is currently being tested by invited companies. The Chinese government is finalizing a bill on the use of artificial intelligence and this may prompt Baidu to launch ERNIE Bot on a small scale first.