Chinese tech giant Baidu (BUDU) is launching a new artificial intelligence (AI) system to rival the popular ChatGPT called “Ernie Bot.”
Shares of Baidu surged by more than 10% in Hong Kong trading on news of its AI chatbot, reaching their highest level in a year.
In a statement, Baidu said that its AI chatbot project will likely complete internal testing in March and then quickly be made public.
The English name for Baidu’s AI system will be “Ernie Bot” and it will be called “Wenxin Yiyan” in Chinese.
Baidu’s announcement comes on the same day that Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) announced an AI chatbot called “Bard.”
Both Ernie Bot and Bard are a response to the Microsoft-backed (MSFT) ChatGPT AI system that has taken the world by storm since its launch last autumn.
Baidu said that “Ernie: stands for” “Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration,” and described the AI system as a “large language model.”
In a presentation earlier this year, Baidu’s Chief Technology Officer Haifeng Wang emphasized the importance of deep learning as the core of AI applications and that it’s showing “increasingly strong potential.”
ChatGPT has shown itself capable of writing essays, composing songs, and programming video games following basic verbal prompts from users. Ernie Bot is expected to have similar capabilities.
Baidu’s stock has decreased 8% over the last year to trade at $142.82 U.S. per share.
