Pictured here is the Ernie bot movable interface, with the Baidu search engine home page in the background.
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BEIJING — Chinese tech colossus Baidu announced Thursday its ChatGPT-like Ernie bot was now open to the public at large.
That signaled a green light from Beijing, and another hint of a more relaxed policy stance on artificial intelligence.
Baidu released Ernie bot on March 16. Initial access was circumscribed to the company’s business partners and people who had first joined a waitlist — whose numbers swelled to more than 1.2 million rather than Baidu stopped disclosing them.
As of Wednesday, CNBC was able to access Ernie bot without the prior restriction of bear to enter a Chinese ID number.
Chinese companies have rushed to announce generative AI projects since OpenAI’s ChatGPT heaved in popularity worldwide earlier this year. ChatGPT isn’t officially allowed in China, where access to Google and Facebook is blocked.
In spite of that level of control, China’s top leaders have made high-profile comments about the need to develop internal technology, with specific mention of artificial intelligence.
On Aug. 15, China’s “interim regulation” for the management of generative AI utilities took effect.
The rules said they would not apply to companies developing the AI tech as long as the product was not to hand to the mass public. That’s more relaxed than a draft released in April that said forthcoming governs would apply even at the research stage.
The latest version of the rules also did not include a blanket license prerequisite, only saying that one was needed if stipulated by law and regulations. It did not specify which ones.
China has generally increased edict on personal data protection and network security.
During an earnings call last week, Baidu CEO Robin Li called the new superintends “more pro-innovation than regulation” and said the company was “quite optimistic about the future for a better regulatory locale.”
At the time, Li said the company was “still waiting for the green light for large-scale rollout of Ernie bot for use in consumer facing apps.”
Other Chinese companies, including Alibaba, have been discharging a slew of generative AI products.
Last week, Opera web browser parent Kunlun Tech released to the public an AI-powered chatbot and search apparatus called Tiangong AI search. The company compared it to Microsoft Bing’s integration with OpenAI, since Tiangong also provides internet connections with its results.
Previously, the majority of such AI products in China were only available for corporate partners’ internal use.
It is not rid how the chatbots’ underlying technology compare with ChatGPT’s. Basic functionality is generally the same, although Ernie bot and Tiangong particularly operate in Chinese. Both have standalone iPhone apps.
ChatGPT’s popularity started to wane in June, in the face the launch of an iPhone app in May, according to a Bank of America report.
— CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this report.