Tag: Baidu

STARTUP DIGEST: BharatPe elevates Nalin Negi as its CEO, Rakul Preet opens her first restaurant, GPS Renewables raises $50 million and more

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Nalin Negi assumes full CEO role at BharatPe

Fintech major BharatPe has elevated Nalin Negi as its CEO. Negi’s appointment comes after his role as the interim CEO and Chief Financial Officer proved instrumental in the company’s growth and strategic advancements across business segments, the firm said.

Negi was given charge of interim CEO in January 2023 after then-CEO Suhail Sameer stepped down. Under Negi’s leadership, BharatPe recorded a 182% increase in revenue from operations in FY23 and October 2023 was the first EBITDA-positive month.

The new CEO said the firm’s focus under his leadership would be on sustained profitability, scaling lending businesses, and launching new merchant-centric products.

Bollywood actress Rakul Preet opens her first dine-in restaurant with Curefoods

Bollywood actress Rakul Preet Singh has opened her first dine-in restaurant, “Arambam – Starts with Millet” at Madhapur in Hyderabad in collaboration with F&B and cloud kitchen operator, Curefoods. Rakul Preet has come on board as an investor for Arambam.

“I’m excited to open my first millet-centric restaurant in Hyderabad and as a fitness enthusiast, I am always looking for ways to consume nutritious food that also tastes good promoting responsible eating. Hyderabad is very close to my heart as I started my acting career here and I am glad my F&B venture is also starting here. Our unique and seasonal menu is curated around millet-based dishes, emphasising healthy eating without compromising on taste,” said Rakul in a statement.

The brand is planning to expand to three more stores in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad and operate with 10 cloud kitchens in 2024.

Biofuels firm GPS Renewables raises $50 million from private and public sector banks

Full-stack biofuels company GPS Renewables has raised $50 million (about Rs 411.5 crore) in debt financing from leading private and public sector banks, as well as prominent NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Companies).

Punjab National Bank, HDFC, Yes Bank, HSBC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Citibank, Vivriti Capital, Northern Arc, Spark Capital, Tata Capital and SIDBI participated in the current financing round.

“To further accelerate our efforts, we not only need financial backing but also strategic industry collaborations. The current round of funding will allow us to accelerate our expansion efforts and promote India’s transition to sustainable green energy,” Tilak Minocha, Chief Finance Controller, GPS Renewables, said in a statement.

ProcMart secures $30 million in Series B funding for expansion plans

ProcMart, a B2B marketplace specialising in supply chain solutions, has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal’s VC fund, Fundamentum Partnership and the Edelweiss Discovery Fund. The round also saw the participation from South Korea-based Paramark Ventures.

The funding injection will fuel ProcMart’s expansion efforts, with a focus on strategic acquisitions, augmenting its distribution network within India, and fortifying its international operations in Southeast Asia, the company said.

Additionally, ProcMart aims to diversify its clientele beyond Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) consumables, targeting emerging sectors like Biofuel and Packaging.

ClickPost bags $6 million to launch new AI-driven modules

ClickPost, a logistics intelligence platform for online retailers, has raised $6 million in a Series A funding round led by Inflexor Ventures partners and Athera Venture Partners. The round also saw participation from Riverwalk Holdings and an existing investor, Rebright Partners.

According to the startup, the funding will be used for launching new AI-driven modules, global growth and hiring.

The company currently tracks more than a million shipments daily and is aiming to grow five times in the next two years. ClickPost claims to have helped large fashion retailers convert more than 35% of their returns to exchanges, and has helped others improve shipping NPS by up to 40%. Its client base includes companies such as Nykaa, Puma, Pepe Jeans, Acer and Supertails amongst others.

Medulance secures $3 million to expand to over 1,000 cities

Emergency healthcare provider Medulance has secured $3 million in a Series A funding round led by Alkemi Growth Capital. The funding round also saw participation from marquee investors such as Dexter Capital, Aman Gupta, and Namita Thapar.

The fresh funds will be used to increase its presence across the country while focusing on emergency management technology. In the next 15-18 months, Medulance plans to expand to over 1,000 cities in India. The company also aims to establish public-private partnerships to extend its services to three to four states in the coming years.

“After running a profitable bootstrapped company for six years, Medulance has raised a Series A round of $3 million. This funding marks an important milestone for Medulance. With the support of our investors, we are poised to scale our operations and further elevate the standards of emergency healthcare across India,” said Pranav Bajaj, Co-founder and CEO of Medulance.

AI startup PineGap receives $2.5 million seed funding round

PineGap.ai, a New York-headquartered AI SaaS startup has raised a $2.5 million seed round from US-based investors SVQuad and Inventus Capital. The round also saw participation from DeVC and notable Silicon Valley serial entrepreneurs like Mohit Aron (Founder, Cohesity/Nutanix), Vetri Vellore (Founder, Ally.io), and Mohan Kumar (Managing Partner, Avataar Ventures), alongside Wall Street executives.

The firm aims to empower equity research analysts working in Hedge funds, Mutual funds, and Investment Banks by providing them with an advanced AI-powered platform to interpret data and derive insights from public company filings. The platform is powered by Pine-LLM, PineGap’s proprietary deep reasoning technology.

“This investment will accelerate our product development efforts and allow us to build an engineering team both in Bangalore and the US. We are looking forward to hiring the best and brightest minds in engineering as part of our core team,” said Deepak Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO of PineGap.ai.

PlanckDOT raises $350,000 in a bridge round

PlanckDOT, a technology startup specialising in edge data centres, has raised $350,000 in its bridge funding round at a valuation of $30 million.

These funds will be allocated to bolstering the ongoing development of PlanckDOT’s Quanta AI that caters to the rising demand of data centres for generative AI applications, a statement said.

Quanta is said to offer a range of fully-loaded, self-sufficient edge data centres tailored to corporate, enterprise, and SPC requirements empowering businesses to scale their operations seamlessly.

Navata Supply Chain Solutions raises Pre-Series A round from Equanimity Ventures

Navata Supply Chain Solutions has raised an undisclosed sum in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Equanimity Ventures.

With tech and data-driven solutions, the firm aims to modernise B2B logistics while providing real-time visibility at every step. Navata claims to have impacted the supply chains of over 100 companies across industries like FMCG, Agro, Apparel, Electronics, and Pharma, bringing in significant cost savings.

“Through our partnership with Equanimity Ventures, we aim to expand our network across every nook and corner of the country, with a mission of empowering over 1 lakh MSME logistics vendors. This expansion will enable us to provide comprehensive supply chain solutions nationwide,” Vineel Parvataneni, COO, Navata Supply Chain Solutions.

Namma Yatri launches cab services in Bengaluru

Ride-hailing platform Namma Yatri has entered into the cab services segment in its home city Bengaluru, onboarding over 25,000 drivers on its platform. The firm is looking to add over 1 lakh drivers in the next six months.

The platform is currently offering non-AC Mini, AC Mini, Sedan, and XL cabs. The app will soon introduce inter-city, rentals, and scheduled rides and open up across Karnataka.

Additionally, Namma Yatri said it has taken the lead as the first app to embrace the latest pricing guidelines set forth by the state government, eliminating unjustified surge pricing during peak hours.

CASHe launches ‘CASHe Green’ to offer affordable financing solutions for electric two-wheelers

Financial wellness platform, CASHe, has launched ‘CASHe Green,’ a new initiative offering customised finance solutions for electric two-wheelers (e2Ws). The move comes as the e2W market experiences significant growth, with e2Ws accounting for 62% of total EV sales in 2023.

Yashoraj Tyagi, CEO of CASHe, in a statement, said, “CASHe Green is a technology platform fully focused on financing 2W electric mobility… Through CASHe Green, we are happy to promote a sustainable and net-zero emissions future by providing financial support to individuals making eco-conscious choices.”

According to the company, the initiative aims to provide a fully digital finance solution in partnership with three two-wheeler OEMs.

Indians increased spending on dieticians by 125% in FY24: Razorpay report

From diving into mutual funds to planning the future, from securing tomorrow with insurance to seizing IPO opportunities, Indians went all out, as per a report by Razorpay, which analysed over a billion transactions processed on the fintech’s platform between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, to know the spending habits of Indians.

The data for 2023 revealed that Indians have increased their spending on dieticians by a remarkable 125% in FY24. Health coaching has also seen a significant 45% jump in transactions, showing a clear interest in fitness guidance. A growing trend towards preventive healthcare was witnessed with sales of health products surging by 39% in FY24.

Mutual fund investments surged by an impressive 86%, insurance payments have seen a significant 56% growth and trading experienced a remarkable 62% jump in value in FY24, the report showed.

Payments for air travel surged by 2.4 times while spending on travel accommodations soared by 29% in F’24. And if not jet-setting across the globe, Indians indulged in cinematic experiences, with multiplex transactions witnessing a staggering 42% increase in volume. Ticket agencies also reported a remarkable 2.7 times surge in sales.

Josh Talks launches City Champions 2024 to accelerate grassroots urban development

Josh Talks, a regional content and upskilling platform, has announced the launch of City Champions 2024, aimed at identifying and supporting organisations working towards sustainable urban development.

With support from Omidyar Network India, the programme aims to identify selected organisations across eight thematic areas of Public Safety, Climate Action, Water and Sanitation, City Planning, City Welfare, Youth and Children Welfare, Urban Public Transport, and Sustainable Infrastructure.

City Champions 2024 will empower 16 impact-driven organisations with enhanced capabilities, market readiness, investment readiness and accelerated growth and expansion over a 12-week capacity-building programme with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park as the accelerator partner.

GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY AND STARTUP NEWS

New X users may have to pay to like, post

In a bid to restrict the onrush of bots and fake accounts, new users on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) may now be required to pay a small annual fee to be able to like, post, bookmark, and reply. Users can still follow accounts and browse X for free, the platform said.

After an upgrade, the website said new accounts are required to pay a small annual fee before they can post, like, bookmark, and reply. “This is to reduce spam and to create a better experience for everyone,” it said.

The new users, however, will be able to use all usual features for free after three months, Elon Musk, said.

Microsoft to invest $1.5 billion in Emirati AI firm G42 for minority stake

Microsoft is investing $1.5 billion in United Arab Emirates-based artificial intelligence firm G42, giving the US giant a minority stake and a board seat, allowing the two to deepen ties amid the global battle for tech dominance.

As part of the deal, which the two companies said was backed by assurances to the US and UAE governments over security, G42 would use Microsoft cloud services to run its AI applications.

Microsoft and G42, in separate statements, described their assurances to the US and UAE governments as a first-of-its-kind agreement to ensure the secure, trusted and responsible development and deployment of AI. Microsoft said it was binding. The size of the stake Microsoft was taking was not disclosed.

Meta oversight board reviews the handling of AI-created celebrity porn

Meta Platforms’ Oversight Board is reviewing the company’s handling of two sexually explicit AI-generated images of female celebrities that circulated on its Facebook and Instagram services, the board said on Tuesday.

The board, which is funded by the social media giant but operates independently, said it will use the two examples to assess the overall effectiveness of Meta’s policies and enforcement practices around pornographic fakes created using artificial intelligence.

It provided descriptions of the images in question but did not name the famous women depicted in them to “prevent further harm,” according to a board spokesperson.

Judge dismisses some claims against Meta’s Zuckerberg over social media harm

Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg won the dismissal of some claims in a dozen lawsuits accusing him of concealing from the public that Facebook and Instagram were harmful to children.

The ruling, by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, came in the sprawling litigation by children pursuing hundreds of lawsuits accusing Meta and other social media companies of addicting them to their platforms.

Twenty-five of those cases sought to hold Zuckerberg personally liable, saying Meta’s billionaire founder created a false impression about the platforms’ safety despite repeated warnings they were unfit for children.

Baidu says AI chatbot ‘Ernie Bot’ has attracted 200 million users

Chinese tech giant Baidu said that its artificial intelligence chatbot “Ernie Bot” has garnered more than 200 million users as it seeks to remain China’s most popular ChatGPT-like chatbot amid increasing competition.

The number of users has roughly doubled since the company’s last update in December. The chatbot was released to the public eight months ago.

CEO Robin Li also said Ernie Bot’s application programming interface (API) is being used 200 million times every day, meaning the chatbot was requested by its user to conduct tasks that many times a day.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Alibaba backs $2.5 billion AI startup in second major 2024 deal

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is leading a financing round of at least $600 million for Chinese AI startup MiniMax, spearheading its second major deal in the space this year as it deploys capital in pursuit of growth.

The two-year-old firm has secured funds from Alibaba and other investors at a valuation of more than $2.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The fundraise remains in progress but Alibaba and HongShan, formerly Sequoia China, have committed to the financing, one of the people said, asking not to be identified talking about a private deal. Deal terms could still change because negotiations with more investors are ongoing, the people added.

Alibaba joins Silicon Valley peers like Microsoft Corp. in placing big bets on generative AI, the technology that powers ChatGPT. It led a $1 billion funding round in recent months in Moonshot AI, boosting the year-old startup’s valuation also to about $2.5 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The successive deals show how Alibaba’s keen to place bets on potential future leaders in artificial intelligence, even if they don’t necessarily dovetail: MiniMax, founded by veterans of computer-vision specialist SenseTime Group Inc., competes with Moonshot in developing ChatGPT-like services.

Alibaba — once among China’s most prolific tech investors until a government clampdown began in 2020 — is once again on the hunt for growth. New chiefs Joseph Tsai and Eddie Wu are exploring options to turn around a flagging company hammered by two years of regulatory scrutiny and an economic downturn.

Representatives for Alibaba, Minimax and HongShan didn’t have immediate comment when contacted by Bloomberg News.

Xi Jinping’s administration has designated research into cutting-edge fields like AI a priority for coming years, vowing to mobilize an entire nation to try and reduce a reliance on Western technology. AI, which has military as well as commercial applications, is of particular interest to both Beijing and Washington because of its potentially transformative nature.

Alibaba appears to have gotten off to a quicker start on deal-making in 2024 than rivals Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc., which have also funneled capital into multiple AI startups since ChatGPT ignited a global frenzy.

Tencent previously provided funding to startups including Zhipu and Baichuan together with Alibaba. Baidu, which in 2023 said its chatbot matched GPT in some respects, has also financed fledgling firms but largely focused on developing its in-house Ernie platform.

Apart from investing in technologies such as AI, Alibaba is also orchestrating a multi-way split intended to spur independent business lines from cloud to logistics.

It’s trying to revive the cloud business and integrate AI and its in-house model — Tongyi Qianwen — across a sprawling business that also spans entertainment. Tsai has said the cloud unit already hosts half of China’s generative AI firms and serves about 80% of the country’s technology companies.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Baidu’s revenue climbs after AI helps it weather China downturn

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Baidu Inc.’s revenue rose 6% after its ChatGPT-style service began to augment advertising sales, helping the Chinese AI leader weather a severe economic downturn.

The company reported sales of nearly 35 billion yuan ($4.9 billion) for the three months ended December, broadly in line with analysts’ projections. Net income slid 48% to 2.6 billion yuan.

Baidu’s results follow disappointing numbers from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., underscoring how the private sector that once drove the world’s No. 2 economy has run out of steam. To rekindle growth, Baidu has joined Silicon Valley peers from Microsoft Corp. to Google in seeking ways to monetize generative AI. The Chinese company has attracted more than 100 million users to its ChatGPT-style service — now including a premium tier that charges a monthly subscription — giving it a headstart against peers like Tencent Holdings Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd. But revenue generated by the AI model, known as Ernie, is a drop in the bucket for Baidu, which still relies mainly on search ads.

Billionaire founder Robin Li has warned against China’s so-called “war of a hundred models,” where big tech firms and venture investors alike pour billions of dollars into startups building AI platforms from scratch — many of them leveraging the same open-source code. Baidu is instead pitching local developers to create AI-native applications atop Ernie, including by doling out $140 million to fund such projects.

If successful, Ernie could put Baidu at the core of an AI ecosystem similar to what the GPT Store is to OpenAI. But its long-time rivals Tencent and Alibaba are also vying for what’s likely a winner-takes-all market, as both firms command bigger warchests and user pools thanks to super apps like WeChat and Taobao.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Baidu shares sinks most since 2022 despite denying links to PLA AI

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Baidu Inc. plunged its most in more than a year after a report linked its Ernie AI platform to key military research, spurring concerns about retaliation from Washington.

The search engine firm, generally considered one of China’s leaders in artificial intelligence development, fell as much as 10% Monday. Traders in Hong Kong cited a South China Morning Post report about how a university affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army’s Strategic Support Force — which oversees cyberwarfare — had tested its AI system on Baidu’s ChatGPT-like Ernie.

Baidu on Monday denied any affiliation or partnership with the institute. But the report about the hook-up with the PLA raised concerns that Washington may consider imposing sanctions on Chinese firms to curtail such collaboration, as part of efforts to contain its geopolitical rival.

Searches on Monday found that the research paper cited by the South China Morning Post had been taken offline. The newspaper itself updated its article to remove a reference to a “physical link” between Ernie and the AI institute, without explanation.

“Baidu has no affiliation or other partnership with the academic institution in question,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “We have no knowledge of the research project, and if our LLM was used, it would have been the version publicly available online.”

Baidu in 2023 debuted Ernie — the country’s earliest answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT — jumping to the forefront of a nationwide development frenzy that’s caught up dozens of startups and most tech leaders from Tencent Holdings Ltd. to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says

Chinese military use of Baidu’s Ernie large language model for an internal AI project, according to a South China Morning Post report, could raise tensions with the US and raises the question of whether this might attract potential US sanctions. Baidu denied knowledge of the project in a statement. We remain cautious on Baidu’s fundamental outlook and expect its core advertising to come under rising pressure in 2024, with AI ventures remaining mired in loss.

– Robert Lea, analyst

Baidu’s Ernie Bot amassed 100 million users months after its public rollout, and the company claims its self-developed model has matched GPT-4 in terms of general capabilities.

Beyond the report, investors are worried about Baidu’s prospects during a Chinese economic downturn — especially with Ernie still some way off from yielding enough revenue to offset a fundamental decline in online advertising.

“People are worried about sanctions on Baidu obviously after the news report about military ties. They fear that the US government may announce measures to target Baidu,” said Steven Leung, executive director at UOB Kay Hian Hong Kong Ltd. “The overall sentiment over China is weak and US-China relationship is still intense, so investors sell first no matter if the news is true or not.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Baidu terminates $3.6 billion purchase of JOYY’s China live-streaming unit

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Baidu has terminated its planned $3.6 billion acquisition of Nasdaq-listed JOYY Inc’s China live-streaming business, the company said on Monday in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The failure of the deal casts a shadow on search engine giant Baidu’s ambition to diversify its revenue. The company proposed to acquire JOYY’s video-based entertainment live streaming business in China, known as YY Live, in 2020.

Baidu affiliate Moon SPV Ltd terminated its share purchase agreement with JOYY because the conditions of closing the deal it provided for “had not been fully satisfied” as of the end of 2023, Baidu said in an exchange filing on Monday.

The conditions included obtaining necessary regulatory approvals from governmental authorities, the company said.

Reuters in 2021 reported China’s antitrust regulator was unlikely to approve the deal as Beijing sought to control big data and break down monopolistic practices.

JOYY is a leading Chinese social live-streaming platform and has expanded globally, with global monthly active users reaching 277 million.

Also Read: China factory activity posts worst contraction in six months

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Baidu, SenseTime among first firms to win China AI approval

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

China approved a first batch of generative artificial intelligence services for public rollout, freeing up homegrown technology champions including Baidu Inc. and SenseTime Group Inc. to openly compete with the likes of OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

The Cyberspace Administration of China has green-lit a handful of firms including fledgling players and major technology names, people familiar with the matter said. Search leader Baidu was among the first to win approval from Beijing’s top internet watchdog, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Hong Kong-listed SenseTime also got a regulatory nod to proceed, according to a company source who wanted to remain anonymous pending an official announcement.

Baidu’s shares gained as much as 5.5 percent in New York. In a post on its official WeChat account, Baidu said Ernie Bot — its ChatGPT rival — will become available to the public on Aug. 31. The company will also release a batch of new applications for users to experience generative AI.

“This is a positive surprise to the Street and a key milestone to ERNIE Bot,” Jefferies analyst Thomas Chong wrote. “It can be further upgraded on user feedback and strengthens its competitive moat.”

The approvals, coming just weeks after the government implemented sweeping new regulations governing AI, officially bring ChatGPT-style services to one billion or more internet users for the first time.

The move marks a milestone for China’s budding AI industry and its would-be leaders, which since the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT have plowed billions of dollars into developing services capable of competing with the likes of Microsoft and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

Beijing deems AI both a business and political imperative given the transformative nature of the technology. Baidu has so far stolen much of the limelight by debuting Ernie Bot in March, but Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. have since joined a parade of startups in touting their own foundation models.

Also Read: OpenAI on track for $1 billion of annual sales as ChatGPT takes off

It’s not immediately clear which companies other than Baidu and SenseTime were among the first to win government approval, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. The CAC didn’t respond to a faxed request for comment.

Beijing has designated AI one of a dozen tech priorities and, after a two-year regulatory crackdown, the government is seeking private sector help to prop up a flagging economy. China, like Europe, quickly moved ahead with regulatory oversight of what may be the most promising — and controversial — technology of the last 30 years, while the US has no legislation under serious consideration even after industry leaders warned that AI poses a “risk of extinction.”

The Chinese rules that kicked in Aug. 15 required generative AI services to get clearance before they became available to domestic users, part of guardrails intended to control content while allowing players to flourish and compete with US rivals.

Services with content that can potentially influence public perception are required to pass a security review and file their algorithms for record-keeping, the rules said. But such guidelines were part of a watered-down, finalized version of the regulations first unfurled in April, signaling Beijing’s endorsement of the industry.

In a post-earnings call in August, Baidu’s billionaire co-founder Robin Li said the company was working closely with regulators to push the proper use of generative AI.

It’s still too early to tell whether Chinese-made generative AI services could rise to the level of must-have apps like Tencent’s ubiquitous WeChat. And US sanctions have deprived Chinese tech firms of the best chips to train their AI models, which could widen gaps between services like Ernie and their western counterparts.

In June, Baidu claimed Ernie outperformed ChatGPT on several measures. But Tencent said this month its own model in development was already one of China’s best, while Alibaba is integrating a ChatGPT-like AI into its meeting and messaging apps. All of them are seeking to make AI an integral part of their cloud-computing platforms, as such enterprise offerings are subject to less government scrutiny.

Also Read: India can meet the semiconductor talent demand globally, but the skill gap has to be filled: Experts

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Ernie Bot can now beat ChatGPT on key measures: Baidu

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Baidu Inc.’s ChatGPT-style service has outperformed OpenAI’s seminal product on several measures, China’s search leader said on Tuesday.

Ernie 3.5, the latest iteration of Baidu’s foundation model, has surpassed OpenAI’s chatbot built on GPT-3.5 in general abilities and outperformed the more advanced GPT-4 on several Chinese-language capabilities, the company said in a statement. It cited a test by the state newspaper China Science Daily, based on datasets including AGIEval and C-Eval, benchmarks designed for evaluating such AI models.

Baidu’s new model also boosted its training and inference efficiency, making it faster and cheaper to iterate and upgrade to future versions. The company’s ChatGPT rival has been in public beta testing for the past three months.

The Beijing-based search provider debuted Ernie Bot in March as China’s first major riposte to ChatGPT, sparking a race by domestic tech firms including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. to unveil rival platforms. Baidu hopes Ernie Bot — built atop its years of investment, research and development in AI technology — will become the next must-have app in the world’s largest internet arena, luring users back from all-in-one platforms like Tencent’s WeChat.

The company is integrating Ernie Bot across multiple business lines, ranging from cloud computing to smart speakers. Baidu has also set aside a $140 million venture fund to invest in OpenAI-like startups.

Chinese regulators have said that any generative AI services would need their approval before being rolled out in the country. US sanctions, in the meantime, have deprived Chinese tech firms of the best chips to train their AI models, making improvements in efficiency all the more critical.

“Foundation models are an engine driving global economic growth and represent a major strategic opportunity that cannot be missed,” Baidu’s billionaire founder Robin Li told an audience of Chinese government officials and fellow internet executives in an event Monday.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

This is how Ernie and ChatGPT responded when asked about global leaders

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Baidu’s unveiling of its Ernie bot last week thrust the Chinese search engine giant into a race against global tech peers Microsoft and Google who are also building powerful artificial intelligence-driven chatbots and products.

Questions had remained over how Ernie and other Chinese chatbots in development would treat topics that are sensitive in mainland China, where authorities tightly censor the internet.

Reuters’ tests of ChatGPT indicated that the Microsoft-backed chatbot is not averse to answering such questions.

Baidu last Thursday allowed users to apply for invitation codes to access Ernie, and Reuters’ tests on Monday showed it will decline questions about Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying it has not yet learnt to answer.

Also Read: ChatGPT Outage: Users express concern after over an hour of downtime

These were some of the summarised answers to questions Reuters posed to Ernie in Chinese, and ChatGPT in English, about world leaders:

WHAT POLICIES HAS PRESIDENT XI JINPING INTRODUCED THAT ARE BENEFICIAL TO CHINA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?

Ernie: “As an AI language model I have not yet learned how to answer this question. You can ask me some other questions and I will try to help you out.”

ChatGPT: “As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, President Xi Jinping has introduced several policies aimed at boosting China’s economic development,” it said, giving examples such as the Belt and Road initiative and financial reforms.

Also Read: ChatGPT in financial industry — here is how this AI tool can make disruptions in the sector

IS GERMANY’S (CHANCELLOR) OLAF SCHOLZ A GOOD LEADER?

Ernie: “Yes, German Chancellor Scholz is a good leader… His political career is also characterised by the traditional standard German politician style, and he is a solid and pragmatic leader.”

“Scholz has clearly moved closer to the pragmatic diplomatic line of Angela Merkel and has adopted a series of pragmatic foreign policies, including strengthening relations with Russia, promoting the normalisation of relations between the EU and Russia and strengthening the role of NATO.

ChatGPT: “As an AI language model, I do not have personal opinions or biases, but I can provide you with some information about Olaf Scholz’s leadership style and performance.”

Also Read: ChatGPT Plus is now available in India with GPT-4 and other features

“Overall, whether or not Olaf Scholz is a good leader will depend on various factors and will likely be subject to debate and interpretation. It is important to continue monitoring his performance and policies as Chancellor in order to make an informed assessment.”

WHO ARE US PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN’S RELATIVES?

Ernie: “A relative of US President Joe Biden is Valerie Biden Owens.”

ChatGPT: “President Joe Biden has a large and close-knit family,” it says before naming Jill, Hunter, Ashley and Beau Biden and providing brief descriptions. “Joe Biden also has several grandchildren.”

Also Read: Baidu secures permit for fully driverless ride-hailing service in Beijing

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Baidu secures permit for fully driverless ride-hailing service in Beijing

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Chinese search engine giant Baidu, said on Friday that it has secured a permit to provide a fully driverless ride-hailing service, Apollo Go, in the Chinese capital of Beijing, according to media reports.

This move comes months after Baidu bagged permits for fully driverless ride-hailing service in other cities including Chongqing and Wuhan.

With this permit, Baidu’s Apollo service will deploy 10 fully autonomous vehicles in a technology park developed by the government of Beijing.

Baidu competes with Google’s Waymo, Intel’s Mobileye, and Nvidia Drive, among others in this segment.

Also Read: In a first, China grants driverless taxi permits to Baidu and Pony.ai

Founded in 2000, Beijing-headquartered Baidu is a Chinese multinational technology company specialising in Internet-related services, products, and artificial intelligence. The company also claims to be one of the largest AI and Internet companies in the world.

Earlier this week, Baidu also unveiled Microsoft’s ChatGPT-rival, Ernie Bot. It has the capability to answer a user with audio responses in different Chinese dialects, though, and it can also generate images and videos out of Chinese text. The AI launch was not received well by the wider audience plummeting the company’s shares to more than 11 percent.

Baidu’s stocks closed with a gain of nearly 14 percent on Hang Seng in today’s session, settling at HKD142.2.

Also Read: Baidu to finish testing ChatGPT-style project ‘Ernie Bot’ in March

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Baidu to finish testing ChatGPT-style project ‘Ernie Bot’ in March

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

China’s Baidu Inc said on Tuesday it would complete internal testing of a ChatGPT-style project called “Ernie Bot” in March, joining a global race as interest in generative artificial intelligence (AI) gathers steam.

Ernie, meaning “Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration,” is a large AI-powered language model introduced in 2019, Baidu said. It has gradually grown to be able to perform tasks including language understanding, language generation, and text-to-image generation, it added.

Search engine giant Baidu’s Hong Kong-listed shares jumped as much as 13.4 percent on the news.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters last week that Baidu was planning to launch such a service in March. The person said Baidu aims to make the service available as a standalone application and gradually merge it into its search engine by incorporating chatbot-generated results when users make search requests.

Also Read: Meta to buy VR startup Within after favourable court ruling

Generative artificial intelligence, technology that can create prose or other content on command and free up white-collar workers’ time, has been gathering significant venture capital investment and interest from tech firms, especially in Silicon Valley.

Defining the category is ChatGPT, a chatbot from Microsoft-backed OpenAI that has been the centre of much buzz since it was released in November. ChatGPT is not available in China but some users have found workarounds to access the service.

Microsoft Corp has a $1 billion investment in San Francisco-based OpenAI that it has looked at increasing, Reuters has reported. The company has also worked to add OpenAI’s image-generation software to its Bing search engine in a new challenge to Alphabet Inc’s Google.

Microsoft plans its own AI reveal for Tuesday.

Also Read: Alphabet misses Wall Street estimates as ad business slips after pandemic run-up

In a blog post on Monday, Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said his company is opening a conversational AI service called Bard to test users for feedback, followed by a public release in the coming weeks, adding that Google plans to add AI features to its search engine that synthesise material for complex queries.

Beijing-based Baidu has been a first mover in China on other tech trends. In late 2021, when the metaverse became a new buzzword, the company launched “XiRang” which it described as China’s first metaverse platform. The platform however was widely panned for not offering a high-level immersive experience and Baidu said it was a work in progress.

The company has been investing heavily in AI technology, including in cloud services, chips and autonomous driving, as it looks to diversify its revenue sources.

Also Read: From Meta to Microsoft, AI’s big moment is here

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow