• By Vikas Yadav
  • Sun, 09 Apr 2023 11:53 AM (IST)
  • Source:JND

CHINESE search major Baidu last month announced its AI model Ernie as a potential rival to the widely popular ChatGPT. And recently, in its attempt to eliminate the fake versions of it, the search giant has taken the legal route. Baidu filed lawsuits against Apple and "relevant" app developers for the availability of counterfeit Ernie bot apps on the tech giant's App Store, according to Reuters.

The case has been lodged in Beijing Haidian People's Court against the relevant parties. Baidu Inc. shared a photograph of the filing, the news agency reported.

"At present, Ernie does not have any official app," Baidu said. The company posted this information on the official "Baidu AI" WeChat account. "Until our company's official announcement, any Ernie app you see from App Store or other stores are fake," it said.

Four fake apps impersonating the Ernie bot (named in the manufacturer's homeland language) were discovered by Reuters during its examination of Apple's App Store. (last check: April 8)

As of now, the bot is accessible only via request. Baidu has warned users against "selling access codes," the report said. The Cupertino, California tech giant did not comment on the matter.

Background

Baidu claims Ernie has "impressive capabilities in literary creation, business writing, math reasoning, Chinese language comprehension, and multimodal generation." Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration (ERNIE) is capable of text-to-image generation.

Ernie was not digested well at the time of its announcement on March 16 by investors because of a pre-recorded launch and a lack of a live event. Further, it cancelled a public live-stream launch event of the bot on Monday, Reuters reported on March 27.

Meanwhile, other search engines, such as Microsoft and Google, continue to integrate AI tech in their browsers to stay relevant in the AI war. Google will soon add AI capabilities to search. On the other hand, Microsoft's AI-powered Bing is already in the headlines for integrating the latest GPT-4 technology in its AI mode powered by ChatGPT.

 

Inputs: Reuters