Baidu, the Chinese tech company, has introduced the latest iteration of its Ernie AI chatbot, Ernie 4.0, during the Baidu World conference in Beijing. Baidu’s CEO, Robin Li, made the bold claim that Ernie 4.0 is now on par with OpenAI’s GPT-4, despite previous claims that Ernie had surpassed ChatGPT 3.5.
Ernie 4.0 was demonstrated generating advertising materials, marketing videos, and even creating a martial arts novel with characters featuring distinct personalities. According to Li, Ernie 4.0 possesses “comprehension, reasoning, memory, and generation” capabilities, making it capable of handling complex questions and reasoning.
However, analysts at the conference were less convinced of Ernie 4.0’s upgraded abilities, as they weren’t immediately evident in the live demonstration.
During the conference, it also announced the integration of generative AI into its other services, including Baidu Drive and Baidu Maps. Chinese users can now make natural language queries when planning journeys using Baidu Maps. Additionally, Baidu’s search engine will provide customized answers to queries instead of traditional lists of links.
Comparing the capabilities of Ernie 4.0 to GPT-4 is a bold assertion, especially considering the extensive use cases for GPT-4 in various fields, including software development, gaming, and language learning.
