Baidu, a prominent Chinese technology company, announced on Tuesday that its AI chatbot, “Ernie Bot,” has amassed over 200 million users. The chatbot, introduced to the public eight months ago, has experienced significant growth, doubling its user base since December.
Baidu’s CEO, Robin Li, revealed that Ernie Bot’s application programming interface (API) is being utilized 200 million times daily, indicating widespread use for various tasks. Additionally, the chatbot has attracted 85,000 enterprise clients, as disclosed by Li during a conference in Shenzhen.
The company has started to monetize Ernie Bot, generating revenue primarily through advertising services enhanced by AI and assisting other businesses in constructing their own AI models. Ernie Bot was among the first AI chatbots approved for public release in China, receiving authorization from Beijing in August after its initial announcement in March.
Competition in the Chinese AI market is intensifying, with rival services like the “Kimi” chatbot from Moonshot AI, an Alibaba-backed startup, gaining traction. Recent data indicates Kimi’s rapid growth, with a 321.6% increase in visits from February to March, narrowing the gap with Ernie Bot, which saw a 48% increase in the same period.
Despite the progress made by Chinese AI services, they still trail behind global counterparts. OpenAI’s ChatGPT remains the most popular generative AI service worldwide, with significant traffic surpassing 1.86 billion views last month.
China’s focus on AI development as a strategic tech sector is evident in its accelerated approval process for AI services. State media reported approvals for 117 large AI models, reflecting the country’s commitment to competing with the U.S. in AI technology.
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