A person familiar with the situation told Reuters that the Chinese internet search company Baidu Inc. (9888.HK) plans to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot service similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT in March.
The tech company plans to launch the service as a separate app and slowly add it to its search engine, said the person, who did not want to be named because the information is private.
ChatGPT’s technology works by learning from a huge amount of data how to answer user questions in a human-like way, giving information like a search engine or even prose like an aspiring novelist.
In China, chatbots are mostly used for social interactions, while ChatGPT is better at more professional tasks like programming and writing essays.
The person said that Baidu wants to give users more than just links when they search. Instead, they will also get results from chatbots.
Related: Baidu gets a licence for driverless robotaxi tests in Beijing.
Baidu declined to comment.
Reuters said that Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) has looked into increasing its $1 billion investment in San Francisco-based OpenAI. In a new challenge to Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL.O) Google, the company has also worked to add OpenAI’s image-generation software to its Bing search engine.
Baidu, which is based in Beijing, has been putting a lot of money into AI technology, such as cloud services, chips, and self-driving cars, as it tries to find new ways to make money.
Last month, at a conference for developers, Baidu showed off three AI-powered “creators” that can act as a screenwriter, illustrator, editor, or animator.
