Baidu, the Chinese tech giant, has released its latest innovation in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), called Ernie Bot. This move challenges OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT and comes as a response to the high demand for a local alternative in China. Ernie Bot, which stands for Enhanced Representation from kNowledge IntEgration, showcases advanced capabilities in multimodal AI, distinguishing itself from its competitors.
During the product release, Baidu’s CEO, Li, acknowledged the influence of OpenAI’s GPT-4, which was unexpectedly launched earlier this week, setting high expectations for Ernie Bot. Li stated that people are anticipating a comparison between Ernie Bot and ChatGPT, or even GPT-4, acknowledging the high bar that has been set.
Ernie Bot demonstrates impressive performance on tasks specific to Chinese culture, such as explaining historical facts and composing traditional Chinese poems. Baidu aims to surpass pre-trained language models (LLMs) when it comes to understanding Chinese, as the company identifies itself as a Chinese corporation.
The standout feature of Ernie Bot is its multimodal output, which is not offered by ChatGPT or GPT-4. While GPT-4 can analyze images, Ernie Bot can generate illustrations, incorporate Chinese dialect in its responses, and even edit and subtitle videos based on text inputs. However, it should be noted that a Chinese publication was unable to reproduce the video generation capability in subsequent testing after the launch.
The Chinese public has been eagerly seeking an alternative to ChatGPT, but for now, Ernie Bot remains exclusive to a select group of Chinese creators. Companies can apply for API access, but it is unclear when the technology will be made available to consumers or integrated into Baidu’s other products, like its search engine or self-driving cars, as promised by the company.
Compared to the rollouts of ChatGPT and GPT-4, the release of Ernie Bot feels somewhat rushed. The presentation lacked live demos and instead relied on pre-recorded sessions. CEO Li admitted that Ernie Bot is imperfect and emphasized that it will improve as it reaches more users. However, Baidu’s stock price slipped by 6.4% following the release, and disappointed reactions flooded social media platforms.
Baidu’s decision to release Ernie Bot sooner than expected was driven by market demand. The Chinese market has experienced several chatbot releases, but none of them have delivered satisfactory results. MOSS, an English-language chatbot developed by researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai, suffered server breakdown within a day of its late February launch and has yet to make a return. Another Chinese startup, MiniMax, recently released a chatbot called Inspo. However, suspicions arose that it merely repackaged OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model.
Baidu’s previous AI endeavors, such as the release of Ernie 3.0 in 2019 and the text-to-image model Ernie-ViLG in 2020, indicate the company’s ambition to compete with ChatGPT. However, the success of Ernie Bot is yet to be determined, as further improvements and widespread availability are necessary.
In conclusion, Baidu’s Ernie Bot has introduced multimodal AI capabilities that surpass those offered by ChatGPT and GPT-4. While it performs well on tasks specific to Chinese culture, its release has faced criticism due to its limited availability, lack of live demos, and admitted imperfections. Nevertheless, Ernie Bot addresses the demand for a local alternative to ChatGPT in China, where other chatbots have fallen short in meeting user expectations. The success of Ernie Bot will depend on improvements, broader availability, and integration into Baidu’s other products.
