The founder of Baidu Inc. Robin Li declared his firm’s big language model could finally compete with OpenAI’s most advanced GPT-4, asserting the lead in his nation’s race to develop AI that can rival the US.
The billionaire took the set in China on Tuesday to run Ernie 4.0 through a Q&A created to showcase its capability to deliver answers and solve tricky puzzles on the fly. Ernie has matched OpenAI’s seminal product in terms of sophistication and general abilities, Li told a loaded house at a converted steel mill that now serves as an auditorium.
Baidu is conducting a wave of fierce investment across China after ChatGPT showed the disruptive potential of generative AI — which can prepare video and content from simple commands. It’s considered a leader in a race with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd., and scores of startups to make a next-generation platform for the world’s largest internet market.
They’re attempting to contest with American names from Microsoft Corp. to Google to make services like ChatGPT and Dall-E, but US sanctions on Chinese access to the most advanced chips to train and run AI models, associated with Beijing’s stringent censor-ship, could cloud their prospects.
The US is tightening curbs on shipments of AI chips to the nation, stoking that uncertainty.
Li told the audience, “Ernie is not inferior in any respect to GPT-4,” Li told the audience. It’s challenging to grade AI models because of their sheer complexity.”
Li placed the latest version of Ernie Bot through its paces in real-time. He expressed queries on subjects like buying property, posed math issues, and asked it to write a novel based on the world of ancient martial arts. It’s a marked contrast to March when the tech mogul unveiled China’s first answer to OpenAI’s red-hot bot through a scripted video.
