19:34, 16 Mar 2023, author: Ermakova M.

Baidu is disappointed with the presentation of the first Chinese chat

Baidu held an official presentation of "Ernie Bot", its answer to the chatbot. However, the consequences were not as expected, and its shares fell on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The presentation by Ernie Bot, Baidu's answer to ChatGPT, was a real disappointment. The Chinese company showed off its AI chatbot for the first time, but the use of pre-recorded demos and the vagueness of the concepts behind the platform's development proved unconvincing to the public and press.

The cold reception of the Asian giant's first major bid for face-to-face competition with OpenAI did not cost Baidu in vain. Shares of the so-called "Chinese Google" fell 10% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after the event to close down 6.4%. This resulted in a loss of over $3 billion for the company.

Baidu's Ernie bot presentation didn't provide too much room for analysis. Robin Li, CEO of the company, took the stage to share some demos of the alleged capabilities of their ChatGPT alternative. However, there were no direct interactions with the chatbot, and the only evidence that was released to the public were previously recorded videos.

Criticism at the first glance at the Chinese chatbot also focused on its elementary capabilities. At least the ones that were shown on stage, of course. Bloomberg notes that some of the queries that were made to the bot were simple enough that a normal web search engine could answer them. Whereas Reuters mentions doing some math and creating images based on text clues. As we have already pointed out, none of this happened live.

Baidu has also not given a tentative date for when Ernie Bot will be available to the general public. The only thing that was mentioned is that a very limited number of users - guests with the code - will be able to start testing the platform from this Thursday. While companies interested in implementing it into their applications will need to register through their cloud platform.

Just because a presentation in partnership with Ernie Bot was disappointing doesn't mean Baidu's ChatGPT alternative is doomed to fail.

In fact, the Chinese corporation is still considered the most advanced in its country in the development of artificial intelligence solutions. However, the initial demo of the chatbot showed that it still had a long way to go.

Robin Lee himself stated that his new instrument is still far from perfect. He noted that the chatbot was introduced because of the big furor caused by the generative artificial intelligence existing in the market.

“I cannot say that we are fully prepared. Comparing Ernie Bot to ChatGPT or even GPT-4 is a very high bar. None of the major technology companies around the world have done this. Baidu is the first,” assured the co-founder and CEO of the search engine.

Despite the criticism, Baidu has taken the first step among Chinese companies to create their own alternatives to ChatGPT. Alibaba is also working on a similar solution, although it is not known when it will see the light of day. The main task of these corporations will be not only to demonstrate that their developments meet the standards of the West, but also to comply with regulatory requirements.