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Chinese tech giant Baidu embeds ChatGPT-like service on flagship search engine as global race to bring similar tools to market heats up
- The beta version of Baidu’s new AI Mate chatbot appears at the top right side of the Chinese search engine’s landing page
- Given restrictions on the mainland, AI Mate generates content based only on domestic references and avoids political queries
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Coco Fengin Beijing
Internet and artificial intelligence (AI) giant Baidu, the first Chinese company to launch an alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has started to embed the service on its flagship online search product, as other major tech firms around the world race to bring similar tools to market.
The beta version of Baidu’s new “AI Mate” chatbot – comparable to Microsoft Corp’s Bing Chat – recently appeared at the top right side of the Chinese search engine’s landing page for certain users. It adopts the technology from Ernie Bot, the ChatGPT-like service that Baidu unveiled in March.
Once opened, AI Mate would tell users to provide “feedback to help it improve”. It also cited only domestic references and avoided political queries, according to a run-through of the new feature by the South China Morning Post on Friday.
Beijing-based Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
02:27
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AI Mate’s lack of resources from outside China led to some inaccurate answers. For example, AI Mate cited Google, Replika, Character.ai and even Baidu in its reply to a query on which US firms have developed ChatGPT-like bots.
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