AI Wars Heat Up as Baidu Unveils their ChatGPT Competitor
China's Search Leader Joins OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft in the battle for AI Supremacy
The Gist
Chin’a largest search engine company, Baidu, is launching its ChatGPT-like service "Wenxin Yiyan" or "Ernie Bot" in March.
Ernie, a large-scale machine-learning model, will serve as the foundation of the upcoming service.
The generative AI industry has attracted vast amounts of venture capital, with companies raising a total of $920 million in the US in 2022.
The AI industry is a rare bright spot in a contracting and job-cutting tech industry.
More Detail
Baidu's shares surged 15% on the news that the company will publicly launch its ChatGPT-like service "Wenxin Yiyan" or "Ernie Bot" in March. Baidu joins Google, who also recently announced a ChatGPT competitor.
This move positions Baidu as a strong contender in the race to create lifelike AI bots, and has boosted Chinese AI-related stocks such as Beijing Deep Glint Technology and Cloudwalk Technology.
Baidu has invested heavily in AI research in an effort to move from online marketing to deeper technology. Ernie, a large-scale machine-learning model trained on data over several years, will serve as the foundation of the upcoming service. Baidu plans to initially integrate Ernie into its main search services, allowing users to receive conversation-style search results much like OpenAI's popular platform.
The generative AI industry has attracted vast amounts of venture capital, with companies raising a total of $920 million in the US in 2022, and Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI dwarfs those numbers.
This trend has captured the attention of global stock markets, causing a surge in shares of AI-related companies. C3.ai, who’s ticker is AI, moved up over 200% in just 40 days.
The excitement around Baidu's entry into the AI market highlights the growing interest from investors in this field. The AI industry is a bright spot, bucking the trend of the contracting tech industry.