Baidu has filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc and other relevant app developers in the Beijing Haidian People’s Court. The Chinese search engine and technology giant has sued Apple Inc over fake Ernie Bot apps available on the Appstore. 

Baidu has made it very clear that the company has not opened the Ernie Bot for public usage and has not launched the Chatbot or any App related to the Chatbot. Moreover, the company has released a statement saying that until the company officially announces the launch of Ernie Bot, any application found online is fake. 

On Friday, the company made an official post on its WeChat Account ‘Baidu AI’. In the post, it said that “At present, Ernie does not have any official app,” and “Until our company’s official announcement, any Ernie app you see from App Store or other stores are fake,”

The company has also posted a copy of the court filing on WeChat for public scrutiny. 

Ernie Bot:

Under development since 2019, ‘ERNIE’ which stands for  ‘Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration’ is an AI chatbot service product created by Baidu. The chatbot is built upon the language model known as “Ernie 3.0-Titan”.

Ernie Bot’s functionality is currently limited to performing mathematical calculations, speaking in Chinese dialects, and generating videos and images based on text prompts. It is considered one of the closest rivals and competitors of Open AIs ChatGPT.

However, unlike ChatGPT, which became available to the public in November 2022, Ernie Bot is still in the development stage and has only been released to a select group of users with invitation codes. Corporate organizations can integrate the bot into their products through Baidu’s cloud platform.

Baidu’s AI Ambitions:

Headquartered in Beijing’s Haidian District, Baidu, Inc. is a Chinese multinational technology company that specializes in internet-related products, services, and artificial intelligence. As one of the largest companies in the world in the fields of AI and the Internet, Baidu has established a global presence and is one of the biggest competitors of Open AIs ChatGPT.

The company has been working on Ernie Bot since 2019 and has a comprehensive strategy for implementing artificial intelligence across all aspects of its business. Through extensive research and development and significant investment in AI and deep learning technologies, the company aims to leverage Ernie Bot to transform its search engine and enhance its cloud services. Furthermore, Baidu plans to integrate the AI chatbot with its smart car technology and household appliances, creating a novel ecosystem managed by artificial intelligence.

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