Baidu posts revenue increase as chatbot plans solidify

Chinese tech heavyweight Baidu Inc said on Tuesday it will continue to invest in the fast-developing generative artificial intelligence sector in the coming quarters, and plans to gradually integrate its ChatGPT-like chatbot service Ernie Bot into all of Baidu's businesses.

The company reported its total revenue reached 31.1 billion ($4.54 billion) in the first quarter of this year — an increase of 10 percent year-on-year — while non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net profit stood at 5.7 billion yuan, surging 48 percent year-on-year.

"We believe the emergence of generative AI and large language models presents a transformative potential of AI in various industries to help people and organizations achieve more and have a positive impact on society," said Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Baidu.

Interest in generative AI, which refers to algorithms trained with huge amounts of data that are able to generate content such as images and text, has surged as ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot launched in November by US-based AI research company OpenAI has taken the world by storm.

Baidu introduced Ernie Bot in March, which boasts capabilities in fields such as literary creation, business writing, mathematics and understanding Chinese language.

Baidu plans to steadily integrate Ernie Bot into all its businesses to empower its products and offerings and attract a wider range of users and clients. So far, more than 300 enterprises have participated in the internal testing of Ernie Bot.

"Generative AI represents a new paradigm shift in AI, and Baidu is poised to take advantage of this massive market opportunity. Baidu will continue to invest unwaveringly in this area in the coming quarters," said Luo Rong, chief financial officer of Baidu.