Baidu says its ChatGPT-like Ernie bot has greater than 200 million users

SHENZHEN – Baidu CEO Robin Li said Tuesday that the corporate's ChatGPT-like Ernie bot has surpassed 200 million users.

He added that the corporate will hold one other round of its AI development competition and offer a prize of fifty million yuan ($7 million).

Li, who can be co-founder and chairman of Baidu, gave a keynote speech titled “Everyone is a Developer” at Baidu's AI Create conference. According to the corporate, around 5,000 people were present on the event.

Li demonstrated three development tools: AgentBuilder, AppBuilder and ModelBuilder. The tools create and integrate AI-powered chatbots into Baidu web search or allow users to construct applications without programming knowledge, the corporate said.

Baidu released its ChatGPT-like chatbot Ernie Bot greater than a 12 months ago and received the green light from Beijing for public use in August.

The chatbot relies on Baidu's large language model Ernie. Smartphone corporations Samsung and Honor have integrated Ernie's AI capabilities into certain mobile devices.

According to Baidu, as of December, about 26,000 corporations were actively using Ernie's features every month. According to the corporate, Ernie processed greater than 50 million requests each day.

“In 2024, we expect AI revenue contribution to become more significant while our core business remains resilient,” Li said during a conference call in late February, based on a FactSet transcript.

Baidu is scheduled to report first-quarter results on May 16.

The global rush to develop AI capabilities, particularly leveraging the technology's ability to generate content, has led to a surge in demand for Nvidia's graphics processors. These chips are critical to providing the computing power needed to run and train large AI language models.

U.S. export controls announced within the last two years have limited China's access to such high-end semiconductors.

Li said in February that Baidu's AI chip reserve “allows us to further improve Ernie in the next year or two.”

Earlier this month, Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai said in an interview with Norges Bank Investment Management that he estimated China was about two years behind the United States when it comes to AI development.

Many analysts consider that Chinese corporations can gain an AI advantage on the appliance front.

According to Barclays estimates, China's AI market – which consists primarily of hardware, followed by software and services – will reach over $26 billion by 2026, up from slightly below $15 billion last 12 months.

Analysts estimate China's spending on “digital transformation” will rise 19.2% between 2023 and 2026, exceeding the forecast global increase of 15.6%.