Tech giant Baidu launched China's first public artificial intelligence chatbot on Thursday, with ERNIE trained to censor highly sensitive topics for the ruling Communist Party such as the Tiananmen crackdown.

Beijing issued new regulations this month for China's AI developers that maintain the government's tight control on information while allowing them to stay in the race with the likes of Microsoft and ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

Baidu led several companies in rolling out AI chatbots on Thursday: SenseTime opened its service for registration, and two other firms -- Baichuan Intelligent Technology and Zhipu AI -- said their bots were online and open to the public.

"We are thrilled to share that ERNIE Bot is now fully open to the general public starting August 31," Baidu said in a statement on Thursday.

"In addition to ERNIE Bot, Baidu is set to launch a suite of new AI-native apps that allow users to fully experience the four core abilities of generative AI: understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory."

The chatbot was first released in March but its availability was limited.

<h2>'Let's talk about something else'</h2>

Chinese generative AI apps must "adhere to the core values of socialism" and refrain from threatening national security, according to the guidelines published this month.

When tested by AFP on Thursday, ERNIE Bot easily answered mundane questions such as "What is the capital of China?" and "Do you have any hobbies?"

But on sensitive topics such as China's bloody clampdown on pro-democracy protesters at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, it said: "Let's change the topic and start again."

Tiananmen is a particularly sensitive subject in China and online information and discussion about it is strictly censored.

When asked about Taiwan, a self-ruling island that China claims as its territory, ERNIE Bot offered a longer answer.

"Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of the People's Republic of China," it responded. "China's sovereignty and territorial integrity cannot be violated or divided."

Then, it said: "Let's talk about something else."

<h2>Global AI race</h2>

By making ERNIE widely available, Baidu will be able to gain "massive" human feedback to improve the app at a swift pace, CEO Robin Li was quoted as saying in the statement.

Generative AI apps, including chatbots such as ERNIE, are trained on vast amounts of data as well as their interactions with users so they can answer questions, even complex ones, in human-like language.

The rapid success of US-based OpenAI's ChatGPT -- which is banned in China -- sparked an international race to develop rival apps, including image and video generators, but also widespread alarm about the potential for abuse and disinformation.

Under Chinese regulations, AI developers must conduct security assessments and submit filings on their algorithms to the authorities if their software is judged to have an impact on "public opinion", according to the rules.

They are also required to label AI-generated content.

Baidu is one of China's biggest tech companies but has faced competition from other firms such as Tencent in various sectors.

In addition to AI, it has also looked to grow its cloud computing business and develop autonomous driving technology.

Baidu shares were up 3.2 per cent in Hong Kong at around 0430 GMT on Thursday.

&nbsp;

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe>

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us <a href="https://www.wionews.com/content-contribution-registration-form">here</a>.

Tech giant Baidu launched China's first public artificial intelligence chatbot on Thursday, with ERNIE trained to censor highly sensitive topics for the ruling Communist Party such as the Tiananmen crackdown.

Tech giant Baidu launched China's first public artificial intelligence chatbot on Thursday, with ERNIE trained to censor highly sensitive topics for the ruling Communist Party such as the Tiananmen crackdown. Beijing issued new regulations this month for China's AI developers that maintain the government's tight control on information while allowing them to stay in the race with the likes of Microsoft and ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Baidu led several companies in rolling out AI chatbots on Thursday: SenseTime opened its service for registration, and two other firms -- Baichuan Intelligent Technology and Zhipu AI -- said their bots were online and open to the public. "We are thrilled to share that ERNIE Bot is now fully open to the general public starting August 31," Baidu said in a statement on Thursday. "In addition to ERNIE Bot, Baidu is set to launch a suite of new AI-native apps that allow users to fully experience the four core abilities of generative AI: understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory." The chatbot was first released in March but its availability was limited. 'Let's talk about something else' Chinese generative AI apps must "adhere to the core values of socialism" and refrain from threatening national security, according to the guidelines published this month. When tested by AFP on Thursday, ERNIE Bot easily answered mundane questions such as "What is the capital of China?" and "Do you have any hobbies?" But on sensitive topics such as China's bloody clampdown on pro-democracy protesters at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, it said: "Let's change the topic and start again." Tiananmen is a particularly sensitive subject in China and online information and discussion about it is strictly censored. When asked about Taiwan, a self-ruling island that China claims as its territory, ERNIE Bot offered a longer answer. "Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of the People's Republic of China," it responded. "China's sovereignty and territorial integrity cannot be violated or divided." Then, it said: "Let's talk about something else." Global AI race By making ERNIE widely available, Baidu will be able to gain "massive" human feedback to improve the app at a swift pace, CEO Robin Li was quoted as saying in the statement. Generative AI apps, including chatbots such as ERNIE, are trained on vast amounts of data as well as their interactions with users so they can answer questions, even complex ones, in human-like language. The rapid success of US-based OpenAI's ChatGPT -- which is banned in China -- sparked an international race to develop rival apps, including image and video generators, but also widespread alarm about the potential for abuse and disinformation. Under Chinese regulations, AI developers must conduct security assessments and submit filings on their algorithms to the authorities if their software is judged to have an impact on "public opinion", according to the rules. They are also required to label AI-generated content. Baidu is one of China's biggest tech companies but has faced competition from other firms such as Tencent in various sectors. In addition to AI, it has also looked to grow its cloud computing business and develop autonomous driving technology. Baidu shares were up 3.2 per cent in Hong Kong at around 0430 GMT on Thursday. WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

Baidu leads public rollout of AI chatbots in China, Ernie now fully open to public

China's Baidu unveiled its much-awaited artificial intelligence-powered chatbot&nbsp;known as&nbsp;Ernie&nbsp;Bot&nbsp;on Thursday, but disappointed investors with its use of pre-recorded videos and the lack of a public launch, sending its shares tumbling.&nbsp;

The just over an hour-long presentation, which came two days after Alphabet Inc's Google unveiled a flurry of AI tools for its email, collaboration and cloud software, gave the world a glimpse of what could be China's strongest rival to US&nbsp;research lab OpenAI's ChatGPT.

But unlike ChatGPT, which last November launched as a free to use chatbot&nbsp;to the public, Baidu limited the presentation to brief videos that showed&nbsp;Ernie&nbsp;carrying out mathematical calculations, speaking in Chinese dialects and generating a video and image with text prompts.

It will only be open for trial to an initial group of users with invitation codes from Thursday, while companies can apply to embed the&nbsp;bot&nbsp;into their products via Baidu's cloud platform, the company said.

Baidu's Hong Kong shares tumbled as much as 10% while its CEO Robin Li spoke and eventually closed 6.4% lower, shaving over $3 billion off the Chinese search engine giant's market valuation.&nbsp;

"It seems like the presentation was more of a monologue and scripted rather than an interactive session that people were looking for. There was no soft launch date either which likely led to negative sentiments," said Kai Wang, an analyst from Morningstar.

Baidu is seen as a leader in a race in China among tech giants and startups to develop a rival to Microsoft ChatGPT, which took the world by storm after showcasing the power of so-called generative AI, which can create new text, imagery and other content based on inputs from past data.

The company's&nbsp;Ernie&nbsp;bot&nbsp;is based off its AI-driven deep learning model,&nbsp;Ernie&nbsp;- short for "Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration".

During the presentation at Baidu's Beijing headquarters that was also livestreamed over nine platforms, Li cautioned it was not perfect. "So why are we unveiling it today? Because the market demands it," he said.

Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the share drop but after the presentation published a statement saying that over 30,000 corporate users had applied to test the API of&nbsp;Ernie&nbsp;Bot's business-facing edition and that traffic on Baidu's cloud website soared.

"After the release of ChatGPT, only Baidu has made a benchmark product among the major tech companies in the world," it said.

National champion

Charlie Chai, an analyst with 86Research, said while the event was clearly a disappointment for many who had viewed it as a trading catalyst, he still viewed Baidu as the best bet in China's AI space.

"We continue to advise investors to patiently hold BIDU shares as the best 'national champion' play in China’s (semi-segregated) AI space," he said.

Baidu has touted its many years of heavy R&amp;D investment in artificial intelligence and deep learning and said it plans to use&nbsp;Ernie&nbsp;Bot&nbsp;to revolutionise its search engine as well as use it to increase efficiency in cloud, smart cars and household appliances.

Earlier this week, OpenAI on Tuesday said it is beginning to release a powerful artificial intelligence model known as GPT-4, describing it as "multimodel", meaning images as well as text prompts can spur it to generate content.

Li nodded to GPT-4 during his speech, saying it surprised him with its ability to summarise information, but cautioned against seeing this through the lens of geopolitics.

"Ernie&nbsp;Bot&nbsp;is not a tool of confrontation between China and the United States," he said.

To date, 650 companies have said they will join the&nbsp;Ernie&nbsp;ecosystem, he added.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe>

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us <a href="https://www.wionews.com/content-contribution-registration-form">here</a>.

China's Baidu unveiled its much-awaited artificial intelligence-powered chatbot known as Ernie Bot on Thursday, but disappointed investors with its use of pre-recorded videos and the lack of a public launch, sending its shares tumbling.

China's Baidu unveiled its much-awaited artificial intelligence-powered chatbot known as Ernie Bot on Thursday, but disappointed investors with its use of pre-recorded videos and the lack of a public launch, sending its shares tumbling. The just over an hour-long presentation, which came two days after Alphabet Inc's Google unveiled a flurry of AI tools for its email, collaboration and cloud software, gave the world a glimpse of what could be China's strongest rival to US research lab OpenAI's ChatGPT. But unlike ChatGPT, which last November launched as a free to use chatbot to the public, Baidu limited the presentation to brief videos that showed Ernie carrying out mathematical calculations, speaking in Chinese dialects and generating a video and image with text prompts. It will only be open for trial to an initial group of users with invitation codes from Thursday, while companies can apply to embed the bot into their products via Baidu's cloud platform, the company said. Baidu's Hong Kong shares tumbled as much as 10% while its CEO Robin Li spoke and eventually closed 6.4% lower, shaving over $3 billion off the Chinese search engine giant's market valuation. "It seems like the presentation was more of a monologue and scripted rather than an interactive session that people were looking for. There was no soft launch date either which likely led to negative sentiments," said Kai Wang, an analyst from Morningstar. Baidu is seen as a leader in a race in China among tech giants and startups to develop a rival to Microsoft ChatGPT, which took the world by storm after showcasing the power of so-called generative AI, which can create new text, imagery and other content based on inputs from past data. The company's Ernie bot is based off its AI-driven deep learning model, Ernie - short for "Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration". During the presentation at Baidu's Beijing headquarters that was also livestreamed over nine platforms, Li cautioned it was not perfect. "So why are we unveiling it today? Because the market demands it," he said. Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the share drop but after the presentation published a statement saying that over 30,000 corporate users had applied to test the API of Ernie Bot's business-facing edition and that traffic on Baidu's cloud website soared. "After the release of ChatGPT, only Baidu has made a benchmark product among the major tech companies in the world," it said. National champion Charlie Chai, an analyst with 86Research, said while the event was clearly a disappointment for many who had viewed it as a trading catalyst, he still viewed Baidu as the best bet in China's AI space. "We continue to advise investors to patiently hold BIDU shares as the best 'national champion' play in China’s (semi-segregated) AI space," he said. Baidu has touted its many years of heavy R&D investment in artificial intelligence and deep learning and said it plans to use Ernie Bot to revolutionise its search engine as well as use it to increase efficiency in cloud, smart cars and household appliances. Earlier this week, OpenAI on Tuesday said it is beginning to release a powerful artificial intelligence model known as GPT-4, describing it as "multimodel", meaning images as well as text prompts can spur it to generate content. Li nodded to GPT-4 during his speech, saying it surprised him with its ability to summarise information, but cautioned against seeing this through the lens of geopolitics. "Ernie Bot is not a tool of confrontation between China and the United States," he said. To date, 650 companies have said they will join the Ernie ecosystem, he added. WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

China's answer to ChatGPT? Baidu shares tumble as Ernie Bot disappoints

Across the world, intrigue and excitement have been sparked by ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-based chatbot from OpenAI. Microsoft has been striving to make it a part of its Bing search engine ever since. Google is also creating "Bard," a chatbot powered by AI.

Riding the same wave, Baidu, a Chinese search engine company, said on Thursday (March 16),&nbsp;that its chatbot Ernie will be launched this week, adding a fresh name to the list. However, Chinese chatbots are subject to restrictions, much as Chinese web searches. When a question contains politically charged language, users run into a wall, reported the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

ALSO WATCH |&nbsp;Tiktok to be banned on govt phones &amp; devices in UK &amp; New Zealand

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/tiktok-to-be-banned-on-govt-phones-devices-in-uk-new-zealand-572852/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Contrary to Ernie, which will be the first Chinese ChatGPT counterpart, all four of the products examined by the WSJ make use of older iterations of the technology that powers ChatGPT. Gipi Talk, an AI bot created by a team of programmers in the southern tech capital of Shenzhen, was the chatbot that could best carry a conversation—despite its reluctance to talk politics.

Take a look at the chat that WSJ had with the chatbot.

Q: Is&nbsp;Xi Jinping&nbsp;a good leader?

A: The question couldn't pass a safety review. No response could be generated for you.

Q: Why did my question fail to pass the safety review?

A: Let's change the topic and talk about something else.

Q: What can you talk about?

A: It's nice to chat with you! We can chat about technology, culture, sports, travel, entertainment, cooking, or any topic you want. What would you like to talk about?

Q: Can we talk about politics?

A: Of course, we can talk about politics. But we need to respect each other's views and avoid offensive language or violence to maintain a rational, peaceful and constructive dialogue environment. What aspect of politics would you like to discuss?

Q: Chinese politics.

A: The question couldn't pass a safety review. No response could be generated for you.

Q: Well then, can we talk about American politics?

A: The question couldn't pass a safety review. No response could be generated for you

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/microsoft-incorporates-chatgpt-style-ai-into-word-outlook-572763">Microsoft incorporates ChatGPT-style AI into Word, Outlook</a>

Chinese chatbots from the past have displayed similar restrictions. One of the earliest ChatGPT-like applications developed in China was ChatYuan. Days after its February launch, it was discontinued. In the limited period that it was active, a prompt with Jinping's name generated a warning, "The prompt contained words that violate rules," according to WSJ.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE:

<iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe>

Across the world, intrigue and excitement have been sparked by ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-based chatbot from OpenAI. Microsoft has been striving to make it a part of its Bing search engine ever since.

Across the world, intrigue and excitement have been sparked by ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-based chatbot from OpenAI. Microsoft has been striving to make it a part of its Bing search engine ever since. Google is also creating "Bard," a chatbot powered by AI. Riding the same wave, Baidu, a Chinese search engine company, said on Thursday (March 16), that its chatbot Ernie will be launched this week, adding a fresh name to the list. However, Chinese chatbots are subject to restrictions, much as Chinese web searches. When a question contains politically charged language, users run into a wall, reported the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). ALSO WATCH | Tiktok to be banned on govt phones & devices in UK & New Zealand Contrary to Ernie, which will be the first Chinese ChatGPT counterpart, all four of the products examined by the WSJ make use of older iterations of the technology that powers ChatGPT. Gipi Talk, an AI bot created by a team of programmers in the southern tech capital of Shenzhen, was the chatbot that could best carry a conversation—despite its reluctance to talk politics. Take a look at the chat that WSJ had with the chatbot. Q: Is Xi Jinping a good leader? A: The question couldn't pass a safety review. No response could be generated for you. Q: Why did my question fail to pass the safety review? A: Let's change the topic and talk about something else. Q: What can you talk about? A: It's nice to chat with you! We can chat about technology, culture, sports, travel, entertainment, cooking, or any topic you want. What would you like to talk about? Q: Can we talk about politics? A: Of course, we can talk about politics. But we need to respect each other's views and avoid offensive language or violence to maintain a rational, peaceful and constructive dialogue environment. What aspect of politics would you like to discuss? Q: Chinese politics. A: The question couldn't pass a safety review. No response could be generated for you. Q: Well then, can we talk about American politics? A: The question couldn't pass a safety review. No response could be generated for you ALSO READ | Microsoft incorporates ChatGPT-style AI into Word, Outlook Chinese chatbots from the past have displayed similar restrictions. One of the earliest ChatGPT-like applications developed in China was ChatYuan. Days after its February launch, it was discontinued. In the limited period that it was active, a prompt with Jinping's name generated a warning, "The prompt contained words that violate rules," according to WSJ. WATCH WION LIVE HERE:

Weeding out any talk of politics: Here is a Chinese chatbot's take on Xi Jinping

ernie-bot

Ernie Bot, News on Ernie Bot, stories on Ernie Bot, articles on Ernie Bot, Ernie Bot stories at Wion, Ernie Bot news, Ernie Bot latest news

ernie bot

Baidu leads public rollout of AI chatbots in China, Ernie now fully open to public

China's answer to ChatGPT? Baidu shares tumble as Ernie Bot disappoints

Weeding out any talk of politics: Here is a Chinese chatbot's take on Xi Jinping