- The Chinese tech giant Baidu announced that its AI model Ernie 3.5 had beaten GPT 4 in some key areas.
- The claims also highlight the growing competition between the US and China on generative AI technology.
Baidu, the Chinese multinational company, is one of the most prominent contenders in the global evolving domain of Artificial Intelligence. Recently, the company claimed that its AI model Ernie has outwitted OpenAI’s ChatGPT on various fronts. The Sino internet company was testing Ernie, revealing results publicly since its launch.
Baidu, on its technological advancements
Launched in March 2023, Ernie is capable of handling reams of data. It’s built on the foundational AI model and quickly received various iterations. The current model is called Ernie 3.5, which surpasses OpenAI’s recent GPT 4 model.
According to the Science Journal, Ernie beat the most dominant model of the world in Chinese language tests. The news also brings our focus to the ongoing competition going on between the US and China in the AI arena. The journal was based on standard admission and qualification exams per the reports. Mainly, it was designed for students willing to crack the exam to join law studies.
However, it should be noted that Ernie 3.5 could not beat GPT 4 in English. Another test was conducted with more than 50 different subjects carrying over 13,000 multiple-choice questions. Again, the Chinese AI beat its American counterpart.
Result of alternate test & new features
Interestingly enough, GPT 4 was ahead of Ernie 3.5 in a third test developed by a group of US universities. It included questions from humanities and science. Buoyed by the results, Baidu boasted about its technological advancements and how it will keep them ahead of the competitors like Alibaba.
Haifeng Wang, the CTO of Baidu, informed us about the rapid progression of Ernie. He said that the Beta version of Ernie built on the Large Language Model (LLM) quickly succeeded from 3.0 to 3.5. It also achieved some remarkable feats regarding efficacy, performance, and functionality.
He asserted that these enhancements are noticeable in the model’s ability to do reasoning, code generation, training, Q&A, and creative writing. Enumerating its key features, Wang said that Ernie could access “plugins, ” making its search process more efficient.
What does it mean for the world?
China has been at loggerheads with the US on quite a few fronts. The world knows about the trade war that made the US shut down Chinese apps and other gadgets. Since the launch of AI, China has been trying to catch up and prove its dominance in the fledgling field.
While AI is still evolving and will probably continue that invariablyalways, the fears surrounding the technology grew. As far as AI users are concerned, the more, the better. More advanced tech means more innovation and intense competition too. Almost every big tech company is working on its AI model. OpenAI will certainly enjoy an upper hand, but it will probably face a tough contest from other organizations.
It would be interesting to see how countries adopt this technology. On the one hand, they will have to foster technological innovations; on the other, they’ll have to ensure that it doesn’t affect people’s interests and employment.
