Baidu's chatbot to see full integration: CEO

An employee comes out of the Baidu headquarters in Beijing. [Photo by Fan Jiashan/For China Daily]

Chinese tech company Baidu Inc said on Wednesday it plans to fully integrate its ChatGPT-like chatbot service Ernie Bot into the company's main businesses.

"AI technology has reached a tipping point and all industries will inevitably go through transformation. The Chinese AI market is on the verge of an explosive growth in demand, releasing unprecedented and exponential commercial value,” Robin Li, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu said in an internal letter.

In the letter, Li shared Baidu's plans to fully integrate Ernie Bot across all of Baidu's operations, including Baidu Search and Baidu AI Cloud, saying the addition of Ernie Bot's capabilities will lead to fundamental changes in the products' offerings and respective markets.

There are also plans for Ernie Bot to be integrated into the Apollo smart cabin and Xiaodu's smart devices and services.

Baidu announced on Feb 7 it will complete internal testing of its AI chatbot service in March.

The company reported its total revenue reached 123.7 billion yuan ($17.93 billion) for the fiscal year 2022, decreasing 1 percent year-on-year, while non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net profit stood at 20.7 billion yuan, up 10 percent year-on-year.