China's Ernie Bot Hits 200 Mn User Mark Amidst Growing AI Competition
China's tech giant Baidu has said that its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Ernie Bot, has amassed over 200 million users.
The impressive figure marks a doubling of user numbers since December, showcasing the chatbot's soaring popularity since its public release just eight months ago. Baidu CEO Robin Li disclosed that Ernie Bot's application programming interface (API) is now being utilised a staggering 200 million times daily, indicating a high level of engagement and demand for the AI-powered service.
Further, the chatbot has garnered a substantial client base, with 85,000 enterprises leveraging its capabilities for various tasks.
The revelation comes as Baidu moves towards monetising Ernie Bot, with Li confirming that the company has begun generating revenue from the chatbot. In the fourth quarter alone, Baidu earned several hundred million yuan by utilising AI to enhance its advertising services and assisting other companies in constructing their own AI models.
Despite Ernie Bot's success, it faces stiff competition from domestic rivals in China's rapidly evolving AI chatbot market. Moonshot AI, backed by Alibaba, has introduced its own chatbot named Kimi, which has been gaining traction at an impressive rate. Recent data indicates that while Ernie Bot attracted 14.9 million visits across its platforms last month, Kimi recorded 12.6 million visits, with its user base expanding by 321.6 per cent in March alone.
Globally, Chinese AI services still trail behind their Western counterparts, with OpenAI's ChatGPT remaining the world leader with a total traffic of 1.86 billion views last month. However, China is accelerating approvals for AI services, recognising AI as a key battleground where it must compete with the United States. State media reported that 117 large AI models have received approvals, indicating the country's determination to excel in this critical technological field.
(Inputs from Reuters)
