Baidu's Ernie Bot surpasses 100 million users, asserts dominance in Chinese chatbot market

Baidu's chief technology officer, Wang Haifeng, revealed at a deep learning summit in Beijing that Ernie Bot, Baidu's ChatGPT-like chatbot, has amassed an impressive user base exceeding 100 million. This milestone announcement follows the public release of Ernie Bot in August, a move that came after a partial unveiling and a rigorous five-month trial period for select users to test the chatbot's capabilities.

While the March partial unveiling may have been perceived as underwhelming by some analysts, it granted Baidu a crucial first-mover advantage in a market now saturated with numerous players. The Chinese tech landscape, encompassing both large and small companies, is fervently developing chatbots powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI). The surge in interest and competition was catalysed by the late 2022 launch of Open AI's ChatGPT, which became the world's fastest-growing software application within six months.

The success of Ernie Bot underscores Baidu's commitment to leveraging AI in mainstream businesses such as search engine, cloud services, and smart cars. Baidu CEO Robin Li has consistently highlighted the potential of Ernie Bot and related products to gain market share.

Ernie Bot leads the pack among Chinese chatbots, as per the SuperCLUE ranking published on Thursday. Despite its dominance, Ernie Bot's score of 79.02 falls just over 10 points short of the latest version of ChatGPT, highlighting the intense competition and rapid advancements in the generative AI-powered chatbot space.

The exponential growth of Ernie Bot aligns with Baidu's strategic vision to solidify its presence in the dynamic landscape of AI-driven technologies, where chatbots play a pivotal role in enhancing user experiences across various digital platforms.

(With Reuters inputs.)