Baidu denies that Chinese military uses its AI chatbot Ernie Bot

Baidu denies that its ChatGPT counterpart Ernie Bot is used by a research department associated with the Chinese government’s People’s Liberation Army. A Hong Kong newspaper reported that the AI ​​was used to analyze military scenarios.

The Chinese tech company Baidu says in a statement to, among others Forbes: “We are not aware of the research project in question. If our large language model were used for that, it would be the publicly available variant online.” On January 12, the South China Morning Post that a research lab used Ernie Bot to analyze military information such as combat scenarios. According to the newspaper, the generative AI had to predict outcomes of certain battle strategies.

Analysts reason that such an allegation against Baidu could result in the United States imposing sanctions on the company. Shares in the company are traded in both Hong Kong and New York. Ernie Bot is a ChatGPT counterpart to Baidu and was released in early 2023.