In a significant development within China’s booming tech sector, Baidu’s AI chatbot, Ernie Bot, has achieved a milestone by attracting over 200 million users, making it one of the leading ChatGPT-like services in the country. This latest user count, announced by Baidu CEO Robin Li at a conference in Shenzhen, marks a doubling since the company’s last report in December, signaling rapid growth and acceptance among users.
Ernie Bot, which debuted to the public eight months ago, is popular among individual users and is gaining traction with businesses, with its application programming interface (API) being utilized 200 million times daily. This figure represents the frequency at which tasks are performed by the chatbot on behalf of its users, demonstrating its extensive reach and functionality.
In addition to individual use, the platform has successfully on-boarded 85,000 enterprise clients. These clients leverage Ernie Bot for various business functions, contributing to Baidu’s revenue growth. Indeed, during the fourth quarter, Baidu reported substantial earnings, partly driven by AI-powered enhancements to its advertising services and the development of AI models for other companies.
China’s regulatory environment for AI technologies is notably stringent, requiring companies to obtain specific approvals before launching generative AI services. Ernie Bot was among the first eight AI chatbots to receive such approval from Beijing, allowing its public release in August last year.
Despite its domestic success, Ernie Bot faces stiff competition from newer entrants like Kimi, a chatbot developed by the Alibaba-backed startup Moonshot AI that is rapidly gaining users. According to data from AIcpb.com, Ernie Bot registered 14.9 million visits across its app and website last month, while Kimi recorded 12.6 million visits. Kimi’s user visits surged by 321.6% in March, outpacing Ernie Bot’s growth of over 48%.
While Chinese AI services like Ernie Bot are making strides domestically, they still trail behind their Western counterparts in global user engagement. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for example, remains the world’s most popular generative AI service, with a 9% increase in traffic, reaching 1.86 billion views last month.
This competitive landscape is further shaped by China’s accelerated approval process for AI services, a part of its broader strategy to compete with technological powerhouses such as the U.S. In this context, state media recently reported that 117 large AI models have received official sanction, highlighting the country’s commitment to becoming a key player in the AI field.
The rapid adoption and application of AI technologies like Ernie Bot underscore a transformative period in how digital services are integrated into everyday life and business operations, reflecting broader trends in the global tech industry. As these technologies evolve, they continue influencing various sectors, including marketing, customer service, and enterprise solutions, redefining possibilities and reshaping competitive dynamics in the tech ecosystem.
Source: Reuters
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