Baidu claims its ChatGPT like chatbot 'Ernie' won't make mistakes

Chinese multinational technology giant Baidu Tuesday claimed its AI (artificial intelligence) chatbot 'Ernie' will not make mistakes on important and sensitive issues like its competitors, Reuters reported.

Baidu CEO Robin Li told Reuters that the company was waiting for government approval before launching its Ernie bot.

As per the Reuters report, its chatbot Ernie does not answer questions on topics such as politics, especially those related to Chinese government leaders.

"For important and sensitive topics, we have to make sure artificial intelligence will not hallucinate," Li said, using the industry term for when AI models generate outputs different from the expectations.

He also added while referring to the AI models used by many chatbots such as ChatGPT: "Given that LLM [large-language model] is more or less a probabilistic model, this task is not trivial at all."

"Industry regulation was not final yet, and the company would continue to update its strategy as it evolves," CEO Li said.

"Baidu has been operating search in China for more than 20 years and has extensive experience with Chinese culture and the regulatory environment," he said.

Baidu CEO also said: "Conversely, companies which do not have extensive experience in providing appropriate online content or lacking a track record of working closely with regulators will face significant challenges."

Last month, draft measures were made public by China's cyberspace regulator, responsible for managing services powered by generative AI technology like Baidu’s Ernie bot. It stated: "Content generated by this frontier technology had to align with the country's core socialist values."

Li said these measures would benefit Baidu.

"We believe that regulators' active engagement in generative AI in the early stage will raise the bar to entry, and we are well positioned for that," Li added.