AI chatbots are a hit across the globe

Google announced Monday that its AI chatbot Bard is in a testing phase and plans to launch the service to the public in the coming weeks. In the future, Bard will compete with OpenAI's popular ChatGPT.

Chinese tech giant Baidu also announced on the same day that its similar AI project named ERNIE Bot will be completed in March and open to the public. US-listed shares of Baidu soared 12.18 percent Tuesday.