Baidu releases new AI tools to promote application development

SHENZHEN,
China
–
One
year
after
Chinese
search
engine
operator


Baidu
released
its
ChatGPT-like
Ernie
bot,
the
company
this
week
announced
tools
to
encourage
locals
to
develop
artificial
intelligence
applications.

“In
China
today,
there
are
1
billion
internet
users,
strong
foundation
models,
sufficient
AI
application
scenarios
and
the
most
complete
industrial
system
in
the
world,”
CEO
Robin
Li
said
in
his

opening
speech
at
Baidu’s
annual
AI
developers
conference
on
Tuesday.

“Everyone
can
be
a
developer,”
he
said
in
Mandarin,
according
to
a
CNBC
translation.

While
many
point
out
how
China
lags
behind
the
U.S.
in
artificial
intelligence
capabilities,
others
emphasize
how
the
strength
of
the
Chinese
market
lies
more
in
technological
application.
Take

next-day
e-commerce
and

30-minute
food
delivery,
for
example.

Baidu’s
newly
announced
AI
tools
allow
people
with
no
coding
knowledge
to
create
generative
AI-powered
chatbots
for
specific
functions,
which
can
then
be
integrated
in
a
website,
Baidu
search
engine
results
or
other
online
portals.
That’s
different
from
a
similar
tool
called
GPTs
that
OpenAI
launched
earlier
this
year,
since
those
custom-built
chatbots
—
for
everything
from
suggesting
movies
to
fixing
code
—
sit
within
the
ChatGPT
interface.

The
basic
Baidu
tools
are
generally
available
to
try
for
free,
up
until
a
certain
usage
limit,
similar
to
some
of


Google’s
cloud
and
AI
functions.
OpenAI
charges
a
monthly
fee
for
the
latest
version
of
ChatGPT
and
the
ability
to
use
it
for
computer
programs.
The
older
ChatGPT
3.5
model
is
free
to
use,
but
without
access
to
the
custom-built
GPTs.

Baidu
this
week
also
announced
three
new
versions
of
its
Ernie
AI
model
—
called
“Speed,”
“Lite”
and
“Tiny”
—
that
coders
can
selectively
access,
based
on
the
complexity
of
the
task.
 

“It
feels
like
their
focus
is
on
building
the
entire
native
AI
development
ecosystem,
providing
a
full
set
of
development
tools
and
platform
solutions,”
said
Bo
Du,
managing
director
at
WestSummit
Capital
Management.
That’s
according
to
a
CNBC
translation
of
the
Chinese
remarks.

Baidu
said
this
week
that
Ernie
bot
has
accumulated
more
than
200
million
users
since
its

launch
in
March
last
year,
and
that
computer
programs
are
accessing
the
underlying
AI
model
200
million
times
a
day.
The
company
said
more
than
85,000
business
clients
have
used
its
AI
cloud
platform
to
create
190,000
AI
applications.

Many
of
the
use
cases
Baidu
showed
off
this
week
centered
on
consumer-facing
applications:
tourism
and
creation
of
content
such
as
picture
books
and
scheduling
meetings.

In
a
demonstration
hall,
Baidu
business
departments
showed
off
how
the
AI
tools
could
be
integrated
with
virtual
people
doing
livestreams,
or
directing
search
engine
traffic
to
an
AI-based
interactive
buying
guide.

Buysmart.AI,
which
won
Baidu’s
AI
competition
last
year,
uses
the
tech
for
an
online
shopping
assistant
connected
to
Chinese
social
media
platform
Weibo.
The
startup
said
it
is
using
ChatGPT
for
a
standalone
interactive
e-commerce
app
in
the
U.S.

“Personally
I
think
that
Ernie
4.0
has
a
better
grasp
of
Chinese
than
ChatGPT
3.5,”
Buysmart.AI
co-founder
Andy
Qiu
said
in
an
interview.
That’s
according
to
a
CNBC
translation
of
his
Mandarin-language
remarks.

Consumers
in
the
U.S.
are
currently
more
interested
in
AI
products
than
users
in
China
are,
Qiu
said.
But
he
said
that
overall
there
is
still
room
for
improvement
when
it
comes
to
building
consumers’
trust
of
AI
assistants
and
convincing
users
to
place
an
order.

Also
on
display
was
a
humanoid
robot
developed
by
Shenzhen-based
UBTech
Robotics
that
used
Baidu’s
Ernie
AI
model
for
understanding
commands
and
reading
written
words.

It’s
not
immediately
clear
how
such
AI
applications
can
significantly
change
business
at
this
point.
But
Baidu
is
the
latest
to
roll
out
more
tools
for
people
to
experiment
more
easily
and
cheaply
with.

Customer
service,
voice
assistants
and
internet-connected
devices
can
use
smaller
AI
models
to
respond
quickly
to
users,
pointed
out
Helen
Chai,
managing
director
at
CIC
Consulting.

She
added
that
in
scenarios
such
as
legal
consultation
or
medical
diagnosis,
small
AI
models
can
be
trained
on
specific
data
to
achieve
performance
that’s
comparable
to
larger
AI
models.

In
the
future,
big
AI-based
applications
will
be
based
on
a
mixture
of
models,
Baidu
CEO
Li
said,
using
the
technical
term
of
“mixture
of
experts”
or
MoE.

He
also
promoted
Baidu’s
capabilities
in
AI-produced
code,
one
of
the
areas
in
which
Silicon
Valley
tech
companies
see
the
most
potential
for
generative
AI.

Baidu
said
since
it
deployed
its
“Comate”
AI
coding
assistant
a
year
ago,
the
tool
has
contributed
to
27%
of
the
tech
company’s
newly
generated
code.
Audio
streaming
app
Ximalaya,
IT
services
company
iSoftStone
and
Shanghai
Mitsubishi
Elevator
are
among
more
than
10,000
corporate
Comate
users,
and
have
adopted
nearly
half
of
the
code
the
tool
generates,
according
to
Baidu.

The
global
rush
for
developing
generative
AI
has
created
a
shortage
in
the
semiconductors
needed
to
provide
the
computing
power.
Chinese
companies
face
added
constraints
due
to
U.S.
restrictions
on
chip
exports.

Baidu
did
not
specifically
discuss
a
shortage
in
computing
power
during
the
main
conference
session.
In
his
speech,
Dou
Shen,
head
of
AI
cloud
at
Baidu,
noted
“uncertainties”
in
the
chip
supply
chain
and
announced
that
Baidu
has
a
platform
that
can
access
the
power
of
several
different
kinds
of
chips.

Back
in
February,
Li
said
on
an
earnings
call
that
Baidu’s
AI
chip
reserve
“enables
us
to
continue
enhancing
Ernie
for
the
next
one
or
two
years.”
The
company
is
set
to
release
first-quarter
results
on
May
16.