Baidu will very soon officially launch generative AI model: CEO Robin Li

Chinese search engine giant Baidu's chief executive Robin Li said on Friday that the company will "very soon" officially launch Ernie 3.5, a generative AI large-language model that will power Baidu's ChatGPT-like app Ernie Bot and upgrade its search engine.

Li made the announcement at the Zhongguancun Forum, one of China's most well-known technology forums, around two months after Ernie Bot was first shown to the public to mixed reviews.

Ernie bot, so far China's closest answer to US-developed ChatGPT, was launched on March 16 by Li, who gave a livestreamed presentation that walked journalists through a series of pre-recorded demos displaying the Chinese chatbot's different capabilities.


According to images shared in March by a Baidu spokesperson in a media-facing group on WeChat, China's most widely used messaging service, the Chinese chatbot has a wider range of skills than previously displayed when it was launched almost two weeks ago.

Since then, Ernie Bot and other products powered by the company's generative AI large-language model have remained in trial mode, with a select number of companies and users invited to test the products and provide feedback.