Slew of Chinese firms unveil plans to adopt Baidu's ChatGPT-like tool

A batch of Chinese companies, with millions of users in China and the world, announced they will adopt Baidu's ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence service, which will make its debut in March, they said on Wednesday.

The enterprises include streaming site iQiyi, travel platform Trip and Shanghai United Media Group, Shanghai Daily's publisher. The firms, which create and deal with huge volumes of data every day, are the first batch of confirmed users of Baidu's upcoming AIGC or AI-Generated Content services.

Baidu's Ernie Bot is a ChatGPT-like AI service that will complete its internal testing in March before appearing on the market. There is high anticipation about it because ChatGPT has sparked a race among all online search and software giants and businesses are well-placed to capitalize on the new technology.

iQiyi and Baidu on Wednesday announced a cooperation deal for the adoption of Ernie Bot in the film and entertainment industry and exploring AIGC techs for content search, production and user experience sectors.

Netflix-like iQiyi called AIGC techs "new productivity" in the industry.

China's biggest tourism platform Trip, formerly known as Ctrip, also said on Wednesday that it will adopt Baidu's AIGC tool to explore the "tourism+AI" strategy. It will be used in the areas of trip planning, content recommendation and user experience.

Currently, Trip serves millions of users in 39 countries and regions in 24 languages.

And it's worth noting that Baidu is an investor in both iQiyi and Trip.

"This reflects Baidu's deep accumulation in the field of (AI) large models, which can comfortably create general AI products for multiple industries in a relatively short period of time, helping to accelerate Baidu's technology iteration and form a virtuous cycle," China International Capital Corp or CICC said in a research note on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, China's famed Shaolin Temple, the cradle of Chinese kung fu, revealed that it will integrate Ernie Bot into its operations for creating an AI-driven content environment.

Last but not least, several news outlets under Shanghai United Media Group, including Xinmin Evening News and the Paper, will adopt Baidu's AIGC tool.

Shares of Baidu jumped 3.76 percent to close at 149.1 Hong Kong dollars (US$19.1) in Hong Kong on Wednesday, compared with a 1.43 percent drop in the Hang Seng Index.