Baidu releases new AI tools to promote application development

SHENZHEN, China – One yr after Chinese language search engine operator Baidu launched its ChatGPT-like Ernie bot, the corporate this week introduced instruments to encourage locals to develop synthetic intelligence functions.

“In China in the present day, there are 1 billion web customers, sturdy basis fashions, enough AI utility eventualities and probably the most full industrial system on the planet,” CEO Robin Li mentioned in his opening speech at Baidu’s annual AI builders convention on Tuesday.

“Everybody is usually a developer,” he mentioned in Mandarin, in response to a CNBC translation.

Whereas many level out how China lags behind the U.S. in synthetic intelligence capabilities, others emphasize how the energy of the Chinese language market lies extra in technological utility. Take next-day e-commerce and 30-minute meals supply, for instance.

Baidu’s newly introduced AI instruments permit individuals with no coding information to create generative AI-powered chatbots for particular features, which may then be built-in in an internet site, Baidu search engine outcomes or different on-line portals. That is completely different from the same software known as GPTs that OpenAI launched earlier this yr, since these custom-built chatbots — for every little thing from suggesting films to fixing code — sit inside the ChatGPT interface.

The fundamental Baidu instruments are typically accessible to attempt totally free, up till a sure utilization restrict, much like a few of Google’s cloud and AI features. OpenAI prices a month-to-month price for the newest model of ChatGPT and the power to make use of it for pc applications. The older ChatGPT 3.5 mannequin is free to make use of, however with out entry to the custom-built GPTs.

Baidu this week additionally introduced three new variations of its Ernie AI mannequin — known as “Pace,” “Lite” and “Tiny” — that coders can selectively entry, based mostly on the complexity of the duty.  

“It seems like their focus is on constructing the whole native AI improvement ecosystem, offering a full set of improvement instruments and platform options,” mentioned Bo Du, managing director at WestSummit Capital Administration. That is in response to a CNBC translation of the Chinese language remarks.

Baidu mentioned this week that Ernie bot has amassed greater than 200 million customers since its launch in March final yr, and that pc applications are accessing the underlying AI mannequin 200 million occasions a day. The corporate mentioned greater than 85,000 enterprise shoppers have used its AI cloud platform to create 190,000 AI functions.

Lots of the use instances Baidu confirmed off this week centered on consumer-facing functions: tourism and creation of content material corresponding to image books and scheduling conferences.

In an indication corridor, Baidu enterprise departments confirmed off how the AI instruments may very well be built-in with digital individuals doing livestreams, or directing search engine visitors to an AI-based interactive shopping for information.

Buysmart.AI, which received Baidu’s AI competitors final yr, makes use of the tech for a web based procuring assistant linked to Chinese language social media platform Weibo. The startup mentioned it’s utilizing ChatGPT for a standalone interactive e-commerce app within the U.S.

“Personally I believe that Ernie 4.0 has a greater grasp of Chinese language than ChatGPT 3.5,” Buysmart.AI co-founder Andy Qiu mentioned in an interview. That is in response to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.

Shoppers within the U.S. are at present extra thinking about AI merchandise than customers in China are, Qiu mentioned. However he mentioned that general there’s nonetheless room for enchancment in relation to constructing customers’ belief of AI assistants and convincing customers to put an order.

Additionally on show was a humanoid robotic developed by Shenzhen-based UBTech Robotics that used Baidu’s Ernie AI mannequin for understanding instructions and studying written phrases.

It isn’t instantly clear how such AI functions can considerably change enterprise at this level. However Baidu is the newest to roll out extra instruments for individuals to experiment extra simply and cheaply with.

Customer support, voice assistants and internet-connected gadgets can use smaller AI fashions to reply rapidly to customers, identified Helen Chai, managing director at CIC Consulting.

She added that in eventualities corresponding to authorized session or medical prognosis, small AI fashions might be educated on particular knowledge to attain efficiency that is corresponding to bigger AI fashions.

Sooner or later, huge AI-based functions will probably be based mostly on a mix of fashions, Baidu CEO Li mentioned, utilizing the technical time period of “combination of specialists” or MoE.

He additionally promoted Baidu’s capabilities in AI-produced code, one of many areas by which Silicon Valley tech corporations see probably the most potential for generative AI.

Baidu mentioned because it deployed its “Comate” AI coding assistant a yr in the past, the software has contributed to 27% of the tech firm’s newly generated code. Audio streaming app Ximalaya, IT providers firm iSoftStone and Shanghai Mitsubishi Elevator are amongst greater than 10,000 company Comate customers, and have adopted almost half of the code the software generates, in response to Baidu.

The worldwide rush for creating generative AI has created a scarcity within the semiconductors wanted to supply the computing energy. Chinese language corporations face added constraints on account of U.S. restrictions on chip exports.

Baidu didn’t particularly talk about a scarcity in computing energy throughout the primary convention session. In his speech, Dou Shen, head of AI cloud at Baidu, famous “uncertainties” within the chip provide chain and introduced that Baidu has a platform that may entry the ability of a number of completely different sorts of chips.

Again in February, Li mentioned on an earnings name that Baidu’s AI chip reserve “permits us to proceed enhancing Ernie for the following one or two years.” The corporate is about to launch first-quarter outcomes on Might 16.