Baidu's ChatGPT-like Ernie Bot has more than 100 million users

Baidu’s Ernie Bot, a ChatGPT-like chatbot, has surpassed an impressive 100 million users, as announced by Wang Haifeng, CTO of the Chinese internet giant. The milestone was revealed at a deep learning summit in Beijing, marking a significant achievement since Ernie Bot’s public launch in August.

Despite an initial underwhelming response, Ernie Bot’s partial unveiling in March and subsequent five-month trial period for select users provided Baidu with a valuable first-mover advantage in the competitive Chinese chatbot landscape. Several tech companies are developing their own generative AI-powered chatbots in the region.

Ernie Bot, considered a key element in Baidu’s strategy to gain market share in mainstream businesses like search engines, cloud services, and smart cars, leads all Chinese chatbots in the SuperCLUE ranking, a generative AI-powered chatbot evaluator. However, with a score of 79.02, it trails more than 10 points behind the latest version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, highlighting the intense competition and focus on performance metrics in the generative AI chatbot market.

Baidu’s early entry into the chatbot space has positioned Ernie Bot as a prominent player, and the milestone of 100 million users underscores its significant user adoption and acceptance in the evolving field of AI-powered conversational agents.