Baidu, Chinese search giant, to unveil chatbot similar to ChatGPT in March

Initially, the app will integrate with Baidu's search services, offering conversational-style search results similar to OpenAI's platform.

According to an unnamed source, Baidu plans to launch an AI chatbot service similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT, potentially becoming China's leading player in the AI race. The company intends to introduce the ChatGPT-style application in March and integrate it into its main search services. The tool, still unnamed, will provide users with conversation-style search results like OpenAI's platform.

Baidu has invested billions of dollars in AI research to transition from online marketing to technology. The upcoming ChatGPT-like tool will be based on Baidu's Ernie system, a large-scale machine-learning model trained on data for years. A Baidu representative declined to comment.

The Chinese internet is dominated by Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance. Baidu, the search company, is seeking to regain growth in the mobile era as it has fallen behind its competitors in mobile advertising, video, and social media. In addition to AI research, the company is now working on autonomous driving tech.

Chinese internet users have taken an interest in ChatGPT, sharing screenshots of their conversations with the AI bot on local social media, despite the country's heavily censored domestic internet. This isolated network has helped companies like Baidu flourish as local alternatives to Google, Amazon, and Facebook.

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