During the Zhongguancun Forum, a renowned technology event in China, Baidu’s CEO Robin Li revealed the launch plans for Ernie 3.5. This disclosure comes approximately two months after the public debut of Ernie Bot, which received a varied response from users and critics alike.

Following its initial unveiling, Ernie Bot and other products utilizing Baidu’s generative AI large-language model have been undergoing trial phases. Only a limited number of companies and users have been granted access to test these offerings and share their valuable feedback.

To recall, the Chinese search engine giant Baidu had canceled a planned livestreamed product launch related to its ChatGPT-rival. According to a report by Reuters, the company had advertised its AI chatbot – Ernie bot as being open to media and the public.

The webcast was scheduled to unleash the Chinese AI bot. But as per the report, it was switched to a closed-door meeting with the first batch of companies that are testing the product.

Additionally, the company cited a change in format in order to satisfy the “strong demand” from 120,000 companies that had applied to test Ernie bot as the reason behind it. It further added that this would be the first of many closed-door meetings.

Earlier, during a conference call with analysts, Baidu’s CEO Robin Li revealed that the company’s first step will be to integrate Ernie Bot into its search service, with the aim of attracting new users and increasing market share in a profitable manner. Following this, the company plans to expand the bot’s availability to its intelligent driving unit and business partners. Baidu also expects a growing number of entrepreneurs and business owners to build their own models and applications on Baidu’s AI Cloud.

“Recently, with users raving about ChatGPT, large language models (LLMs) using generative AI have created a mega trend that will revolutionise many businesses. Baidu is well positioned to capitalise on the imminent inflection point” in artificial intelligence,” said Li.

(With inputs from Reuters)