Chinese tech giant Baidu on Tuesday announced the most recent iteration of its generative artificial intelligence (AI) model, Ernie 4.0, claiming that it was on par with the ground-breaking GPT-4 model developed by OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
Baidu unveils latest version: At a gathering in Beijing, CEO Robin Li unveiled Ernie 4.0, emphasising the model’s memory capabilities and showing it authoring a martial arts novel in real time.
He also demonstrated Ernie 4.0 producing videos and banners for advertisements.
In the midst of a global enthusiasm for the technology triggered by the release of ChatGPT last year, Baidu, the owner of the largest internet search engine in China, is in the forefront of AI models in China.
“The company released the ErnieBot chatbot in March, which upset investors as they only saw pre-recorded demonstrations.”
Baidu was one of several companies that received regulatory authorisation in August to make AI products available to the general market.
According to data from brokerage CLSA, China already possesses at least 130 large language models (LLMs), accounting for 40% of the global total and trailing only the United States’ 50%.