- Since its August launch, Baidu’s chatbot Ernie Bot hit 100 million users, leading China’s chatbot race.
- Though less sophisticated than Western rivals, Ernie Bot positions Baidu to expand its offerings.
- Early chatbot efforts give Baidu an advantage as AI transforms tech interactions.
Amazing growth
Baidu’s conversational AI chatbot, Ernie Bot, has amassed over 100 million users since its public debut last August, according to chief technology officer Wang Haifeng.
Wang announced the milestone at a Beijing deep learning summit on Thursday. Baidu unveiled Ernie Bot in March after a lengthy testing period before opening access over the summer.
Baidu leads the pack in China’s chatbot revolution
The rapid user growth gives Baidu a vital first-mover advantage in China’s increasingly crowded chatbot space as companies race to develop rivals to OpenAI’s wildly popular ChatGPT.
Analysts believe Ernie Bot could help Baidu expand its core search, cloud, and autonomous driving businesses going forward.
Catching up with global counterparts
Baidu trails the leading Western chatbots in sophistication. Per Chinese benchmarking platform SuperCLUE, Ernie Bot topped all domestic chatbots but scored nearly 10 points below ChatGPT on assessing conversational ability.
With AI-enabled assistants poised to transform how users interact with technology, Baidu hopes its early start in China’s promising chatbot race will continue paying dividends in 2023 and beyond.
