Competing with the US, China launches its own chatbot; is the time for Europe to act in the AI race approaching?

As the race for artificial intelligence (AI) heats up, and the world's economic powers demonstrate their capabilities one after another, one wonders when Europe will find its place in this field?

Cạnh tranh với Mỹ, Trung Qu.ốc tung ra chatbot riêng, thời điểm hành động của châu Âu trong cuộc đua AI đã đến?. Ảnh minh họa. (Nguồn: Time)

Competing with the US, China will launch a series of new AI applications. (Illustrative image. Source: Time)

On August 31st, Chinese internet giant Baidu launched its own conversational robot. Currently only available in the Chinese market, Ernie Bot is China's answer to the American application ChatGPT. A series of new AI-powered applications are also about to be launched.

Responding to the American chatbot

Ernie Bot is now available for download from the app stores or Baidu's website. Like its main competitor, ChatGPT, users can ask Ernie Bot questions or prompt it to write market analysis, suggest marketing slogans, and summarize documents…

The company stated that The Verge Ernie Bot is available globally, but users need a Chinese phone number to register and log in. The Baidu app is available on US Android and iOS app stores but only in Chinese.

Baidu also opened a plugin marketplace for Ernie Bot. Company representatives said Ernie Bot surpassed 1 million users within the first 19 hours of its launch.

The company said in an emailed statement that, in addition to Ernie Bot, they also plan to launch “a new suite of AI-native applications that will allow users to fully experience the four core capabilities of general AI: understanding, creating, reasoning, and memory.”

Baidu co-founder and CEO Robin Li noted that the company will be able to gather “greatly valuable feedback from real -world people” to improve its platform model, also known as Ernie, and bring more innovations to Ernie Bot.

Reuters reported that Baidu and other companies must submit security assessments to the government and demonstrate compliance with China's general AI guidelines before launching commercially.

Other companies authorized by the Chinese government include SenseTime, Baichuan Intelligence Technology, Zhipu AI, and MiniMax.

According to China's general AI guidelines, companies must "adhere to the core values of socialism" and all training data for platform models must come from sources deemed legitimate by the government.

When should Europe act?

The Tortoise Global AI Index, which assesses countries based on their level of investment, innovation, and AI deployment, shows that the emergence of Ernie Bot in the market marks a major step forward in China's goal of becoming a world leader in AI by 2030.

Meanwhile, according to Professor Axel Legay, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Louvain (UC Louvain), this is the time for Europe to act, as Germany, the engine of the European economy, ranks eighth on the Tortoise Index, while the United Kingdom ranks fourth.

Professor Axel Legay asserts that Europe clearly has the potential to compete with economic powerhouses in the field of AI. According to him, the development of AI in Europe is promising, but requires coordination among countries in the region.

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