Baidu's Ernie Bot chatbot has attracted 200 million users

Baidu has reported a significant increase in the popularity of its artificial intelligence chatbot Ernie Bot. According to the company, the number of users of the service has exceeded 200 million, doubling since the last update in December.

Here's What We Know

In addition, Ernie Bot's API is used 200 million times a day, and the number of corporate customers has reached 85,000. Baidu CEO Robin Li also revealed that the company is starting to generate revenue from Ernie Bot, earning several hundred million yuan in the fourth quarter by using the AI in advertising services and helping other companies.

Ernie Bot was China's first ChatGPT-like chatbot, which received approval from authorities for public release last August. However, in recent months, it has faced increasing competition from other domestic developments such as Kimi from startup Moonshot AI.

Despite impressive growth, Chinese generative AI services still lag far behind global leaders such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, which remains the most popular in the world. However, China has accelerated the approval process for new AI models, emphasising the importance of the technology to national competitiveness.

Source: Reuters