Chinese search engine Baidu is one of the biggest search engines today, and just like Bing and Google, it also has its own AI chatbot called Ernie. However, with the AI chatbot space in its current disrupted state, every chatbot is doing something to stand out.
Baidu said that it would make its artificial intelligence chatbot Ernie Bot free starting April 1 because of improved technology and reduced costs. Baidu said in a WeChat post that the AI service will be accessible at no cost to all users on both desktop and mobile platforms.
Baidu diving into the LLM space
Baidu was among China's first movers in AI following the 2022 debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT, but has struggled to gain widespread adoption for its Ernie large language model. After Open AI’s ChatGPT rose to fame in 2022, Baidu was one of the first companies to also dive into the world of Large Language Models to develop its own chatbot.
Baidu claims its Ernie 4.0 model to be on par with the GPT 4 model.
In late 2023, Baidu also introduced premium features to Ernie, charging interested users a sum of about Rs 710 every month. This is the exact cost the company is now set to eliminate on April 1.
Baidu’s Ernie is the latest player in the game to be offering all their functionality for free, as that seems to be the latest trend in the AI chatbot industry currently.
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