If you are reading this on the internet, then you’ve probably heard of ChatGPT. The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, made by California-based company OpenAI, has taken the world by storm. More than 100 million people around the world are estimated to have used it in the two months since it launched, and Microsoft has made a “multiyear, multibillion dollar investment” in OpenAI to integrate the company’s technology into its search engine, Bing (with some initially frightening effects). Google is developing its own chatbot named Bard.
The furor around ChatGPT and similar alternatives has prompted a scramble in China’s tech sector to join the party. Baidu, China’s leading search engine, said it plans to roll out its “Ernie Bot” in March while other Chinese tech giants, such as Alibaba and JD.com, announced chatbots of their own.
