Baidu, the company behind 'Ernie Bot,' the Chinese counterpart of ChatGPT and the most popular chatbot in the nation, has unveiled its newest AI tools.
These tools allow users to create their chatbots with little to no coding knowledge, as reported by CNBC.
Baidu's recently released AI tools allow non-programmers to develop generative AI-powered chatbots for particular uses.
These chatbots can then be integrated into websites, Baidu search engine results, or other online portals. This isn't the same as GPTs, a related tool that OpenAI introduced earlier this year; those specially designed chatbots are housed inside the ChatGPT interface.
(Photo: JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images) The company logo is displayed at Baidu's headquarters in Beijing on September 6, 2022.
Similar to several of Google's cloud and AI services, the basic Baidu tools are typically free to try up to a specific use limit.
The most recent version of ChatGPT, which can be used for computer programs, is available for a monthly subscription from OpenAI. Although it lacks access to the specially designed GPTs, the previous ChatGPT 3.5 variant is still free to use.
This week, Baidu showcased several use cases that were aimed at consumers, including travel and the production of content like picture books and meeting planners.
The business departments of Baidu showcased in a demonstration hall how the AI technologies may be combined with virtual characters doing live streams or driving search engine traffic to an interactive buying guide powered by AI.
Baidu's Other AI Ventures
According to Qiu, American consumers are currently more interested in AI products than Chinese consumers.
However, he acknowledged that there is still an opportunity for development in terms of gaining users' trust in AI helpers and persuading them to make a purchase.
Baidu also reportedly unveiled three new iterations of its Ernie AI model, dubbed "Speed," "Lite," and "Tiny," which programmers can choose to use in different ways depending on the task's complexity.
200 Million Ernie Bot Users
The tech giant also revealed that Baidu's "Ernie Bot" has amassed 200 million users recently, almost doubling its user base from over 100 million in December of last year.
Because of its impressive user base, the AI chatbot remains China's most popular AI chatbot.
During a conference in Shenzhen on Tuesday, Robin Li, the CEO of the massive Chinese internet company, revealed the new achievement. The chatbot was made available to the public eight months ago.
When the user base surpassed 100 million in December, the company released that data for the first time. Li claims that 200 million requests for Ernie Bot's application programming interface (API) are made daily, indicating that users have requested that the chatbot carry out tasks that frequently.
Li claims that the chatbot currently has 85,000 business clients. Ernie Bot created domestically and resembling ChatGPT, was the first of eight AI chatbots allowed by China when it was unveiled in the nation in March of last year. But it wasn't authorized for general distribution until August.
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(Photo: Tech Times)