Baidu Scrambles To Ready China's First ChatGPT Equivalent Ahead of Launch

A week away from the March 16 launch of Baidu's ChatGPT equivalent, employees at China's biggest search-engine operator said they are racing to meet the deadline with the chatbot still struggling to perform some basic functions. From a report: To develop the artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot, dubbed Ernie Bot, hundreds of people have been working around the clock, people familiar with the project said. Other teams have been asked to lend their staff and their powerful computer chips, which Chinese companies can no longer buy because of U.S. sanctions, they said. The AI model that is the basis of the chatbot is still being trained with data ahead of the scheduled launch, a highly anticipated event in China's tech industry, some of the people said. Some employees said they haven't had sufficient time to build a well-functioning product. Baidu plans to roll out the product in stages, first opening it up for public testing to a restricted pool of users, people briefed about the plan said. Last month, Baidu said that it will embed Ernie Bot into its search engine first and will open it to the public in March.

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