BEIJING - Baidu on Thursday unveiled its much-anticipated artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot known as Ernie Bot, with its chief executive officer saying that it was the culmination of the firm’s years of hard work in AI.

The bot was not perfect, but they were releasing it now because of market demand, CEO Robin Li said at a media conference in Beijing.

The company’s Hong Kong-listed shares tumbled 10 per cent as he demonstrated the bot answering questions, writing a poem, as well as producing a video and image with prompts.

To date, 650 companies have said they will join the Ernie ecosystem, he added.

Chinese state media outlets and a Shaolin temple were among the first sign-ups to become Ernie Bot partners.

The popularity of ChatGPT, backed by Microsoft, has triggered a frenzied rush among Chinese tech giants and start-ups alike to develop a rival.

Baidu jumped to the forefront of the race after saying early in February it was close to completing a chatbot using its AI-driven deep learning model, Ernie – short for “Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration”.

The company has touted its many years of heavy research and development investment in AI and deep learning as one reason it is best placed to lead the race to develop a Chinese answer to ChatGPT.

Baidu’s R&D expenses in 2022 were 21.4 billion yuan (S$4.2 billion), accounting for 22 per cent of revenue.

Baidu plans to use Ernie Bot to revolutionise its search engine, by far the most dominant in China, as well as use it to increase efficiency in the cloud, smart cars and household appliances, among other mainstream businesses. REUTERS