Chinese online search giant Baidu said on Tuesday that its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot "Ernie Bot" has garnered more than 200 million users, making it China's leading AI foundation model with the broadest range of applications.
Ernie Bot, the first locally developed ChatGPT-like chatbot in China, was released to the public in August last year.
Now, about 26,000 businesses are actively accessing Ernie's capabilities on a monthly basis, according to Baidu.
"Based on Baidu's Apollo navigation system, we are currently conducting advanced autonomous driving technologies and research. And we have delivered more than 700 units of our trucks nationwide," said Li Lei, corporate strategy and finance director of DeepWay Technology.
"This is a postcard. I can finish such a painting in about 30 seconds, and then quickly make a design," said Yang Ruoli, a creator on Wenxinyige, Baidu's AI-powered art platform.
"We are integrating the Baidu models, Ernie Bot, from the platform Qianfan in order to make the robot understand better its environment and its visual capabilities," said Sotirios Stasinopoulos, product manager of UBTECH Robotics.
In order to gain an upper hand in the global rush to develop AI capabilities, Baidu on Tuesday unveiled three AI development toolkits: AgentBuilder, AppBuilder and ModelBuilder.
The company is also offering prize money worth 50 million yuan (about 6.9 million U.S. dollars) in a new round of its AI development competition.
"In the future, natural language will emerge as the new programming language, Simply being able to speak can make you a developer, empowering you to shape the world with your creativity," said Baidu CEO Robin Li at the Create 2024 Baidu AI Developer Conference on Tuesday in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province.
"The three major toolkits released by Baidu almost cover all walks of life, as a low-level model or as general technical services," said Zhou Zean, founder of BiYOO Technology.
Baidu's AI chatbot garners over 200 million users since release
Protests in support of Palestinians in the Gaza conflict at the University of Texas Austin (UT Austin), United States, have been in their second week, while student encampments in other U.S. universities, including the University of Connecticut, Yale University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have been cleared out.
The arrests of 79 demonstrators on Monday stemmed from a protest at the University of Texas Austin campus, resulting in 78 individuals charged with criminal trespass and one with obstructing a roadway. Before any of these individuals are released from the Travis County jail, though, they have to go before a judge, which has been unclear how quickly that process is going to happen.
According to the organizers of Monday's demonstration, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, a registered student group, a number of protesters were injured when they were arrested on Monday and were not given immediate medical attention or offered food and water for hours.
The Travis County Sheriff's Office said every person that is booked in the facility has been given a mental and health screening and then they are triaged according to the severity of their needs.
Some hours after the dramatic confrontations between police and demonstrators at the UT Austin campus, demonstrators reoccupied the south lawn of the campus, as they vowed to stay put until their demands are met.
On the following day of Tuesday, there were roughly about 75 to 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators that have camped out outside the Travis County jail. They have been chanting for the release of the individuals that have been arrested and for all the charges to be dropped.
And also, these demonstrators outside the Travis County jail witnessed the first person released from jail. When that individual came up, he threw his hands up into the air and sat down, and then a group of other demonstrators came and surrounded him, huddled in around him and protected him, talking to him about his experience over these past 24 hours.
The university last week placed the Palestine Solidarity Committee on interim suspension, as at least 57 people were arrested during last week's protest at the UT Austin campus. The committee said on Monday that it was not involved in organizing the event but is supportive of the protesters.
All charges against the 57 protesters arrested last week have been dropped, the Travis County attorney's office confirmed last Friday.
In another Texas city of Houston, a number of students at Rice University and the University of Houston also joined the nationwide efforts involving students in pro-Palestinian protests on Wednesday.
From Texas to California, pro-Palestinian demonstrations are spreading on campuses across the United States as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Gaza continues. To date, hundreds have been arrested by police amid student protests.
Protest of Texas students over Gaza conflict enters second week
