The Chinese search giant Baidu has recently made the headlines again due to the unveiling of its newest chatbot, Ernie Bot. The robot was unveiled in a pre-recorded video on Thursday, presenting a new competitor to the Microsoft-backed ChatGPT. Unfortunately, the introduction has been somewhat underwhelming, as the investor’s reaction to the debut was seemingly negative.

What has been proposed as Ernie Bot is a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot designed to assist users in conversational tasks. Developed by Baidu’s artificial intelligence team, the bot is said to be equipped with several advanced features such as natural language processing, machine learning, and text-prediction capabilities. According to the Baidu’s representative, Ernie Bot is based on the company’s BBE system (Baidu Brain Engine).

Ernie Bot’s main selling point is its ability to understand spoken and written language, enabling users to engage in dialogue with the artificial intelligence. This is not the only feature that the AI has: it is also able to multi-task, making use of its capacity to create, learn, understand, and remember what has been said and done. As such, the bot will be capable of understanding natural spoken language and suggesting automated solutions to users.

This is not the first time Baidu has made strides in AI technology capabilities as the company has been working on AI for years, launching products such as Baidu Voice Assistant, a voice recognition software for smartphones and vehicles, and Baidu Autonomous Driving Platform, an open platform for the development and deployment of autonomous driving solutions.

Despite the ambitious project and its potential, Baidu shares fell 1.3%, which could be a sign of investors’ lack of confidence in the potential success of Ernie Bot. As of yet, it is unclear if the AI will be able to compete with the successful ChatGPT released by Microsoft. For now, we can expect Baidu to have several more months of hard work ahead to prove the worth of its newest AI product.