China's Baidu cancels showcase for ChatGPT rival Ernie
Baidu , the Chinese tech giant, has canceled a public event to promote its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Ernie . The event was scheduled to be livestreamed and open to the media and public. Instead, Baidu has opted for a closed-door meeting with companies that are testing the AI-powered bot. The change in format is to cater to the “strong demand” from 120,000 firms that have registered for the chance to test Ernie. Ernie was unveiled earlier this month to a muted reaction, as the chatbot lacked features included in OpenAI’s ChatGPT’s follow-up GPT-4. Baidu’s shares fell after a prerecorded demonstration by CEO Robin Li showed that Ernie could not generate text in response to an image. However, the firm's shares later rebounded strongly as users shared their experiences of the platform online. Baidu’s Ernie is one of several AI chatbots that Chinese companies have rolled out to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. However, analysts suggest that Beijing's strict controls on...