Given Beijing’s grip on information, can China’s AI companies build a chatbot to rival ChatGPT?
Robin Li, chairman and chief executive officer of Baidu Inc., during a launch event for the company's Ernie Bot in Beijing, China, March 16, 2023. Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images
Last week, the public got a peek at China’s best shot at competing in the chatbot craze when search giant Baidu released its chatbot, named Ernie. It didn’t go well.
Baidu’s stock fell 10 percent shortly after Ernie’s reveal, largely because CEO Robin Li demonstrated Ernie’s capabilities with a pre-recorded video, not a live demo, leaving many doubtful about the chatbot’s true capabilities. (Baidu’s stock has since rebounded.) While internet users are free to experiment with San Francisco-based OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Baidu’s product still isn’t fully available for public testing.
Part of the reason for Ernie’s delayed rollout may be Beijing’s apprehension about the technology.
Indeed, Chinese developers face one major hurdle that their Western competitors don’t: their government’s draconian information controls. As internet users in the West have shown, generative AI models like ChatGPT are hard to tame, spitting out unexpected and some
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
A long line of multinationals are now knocking on India's door. But if there's any chance of them successfully diversifying away from China's highly skilled workforce and well-oiled logistical machine, they'll need to learn from the industries that came before them.
The former Defense Secretary under George W. Bush and Barack Obama talks about Xi Jinping's relations with the PLA, Taiwan and how the U.S. should deal with China and Russia.
The Global Intelligence Platform used by The Wire China