China is no exception to the ChatGPT frenzy and it was only a matter of time before the development of a local alternative became known. As reported BloombergBaidu, the Chinese Google, plans to launch its own version of the artificial intelligence chatbot in the coming months. But not only that, but it also claims to integrate it into your search engine.
The aforementioned medium indicates that the Chinese ChatGPT will have its premiere in March and that it will offer an experience similar to that offered today by the OpenAI platform. This means that users will be able to search through Baidu and will receive the results in a chat format.
Details regarding the new technology that will be launched in the Asian giant are still scarce. All that is known is that Baidu would rely on Ernie, its own machine learning model, to bring its ChatGPT variant to life. The rest remains unknown, to the point that it is not even known if the tool will be released under a particular name.
What Baidu proposes is interesting for different reasons. First, because it continues the trend of companies in China releasing local versions of Western products and services that are often blocked by their government-imposed censorship. But what is striking is that, according to Bloomberg, access to ChatGPT is not restricted in the Asian giant. At least for now. Therefore, the new generative artificial intelligence will have to be measured directly against that of OpenAI.
On the other hand, the proposal of the Asian company seems to be much more than developing a mere clone. Baidu has been studying and investing in artificial intelligence for several years, and the implementation of a ChatGPT-style solution in its browser could revitalize its dominance in the field; especially in the mobile market.
Baidu would beat Google and Bing with its alternative to ChatGPT
If Baidu manages to integrate an artificial intelligence chatbot into its search engine, it would beat Google and Bing hand in hand. Let’s not forget that both American platforms are rumored to be working on the same thing today.
It is a given that Microsoft will incorporate all of the OpenAI tools—not just ChatGPT—into their products. While in Mountain View they would be looking for a way to counter the furor over Sam Altman’s startup by accelerating the development of new products with AI.
In fact, Google has a very advanced natural language model called LaMDA. And although several of its features are already part of its browser, these are technologies that work under the hood and that today do not cause the impact that ChatGPT is achieving, whose interaction is much more direct.
Baidu getting ahead of Western companies by integrating an AI bot into its browser won’t be too much of a concern in the West in terms of user churn. But in an increasingly competitive race to gain the upper hand in implementing new technologies, the fact that China can get ahead of itself will surely not be to the taste of the Americans.
It remains to be seen how this story continues. For now, on this side of the world, nothing stops the overwhelming progress of ChatGPT. Not even criticism from artificial intelligence experts for its apparent lack of innovation.