Today (March 16) at 2 pm, Baidu Inc (Baidu Inc.) At a press conference held at the Beijing headquarters, the company's founder, chairman and CEO Robin Li formally introduced the generative AI product "Wenxin Yiyan" and demonstrated its comprehensive capabilities in five usage scenarios: literary creation, commercial copywriting, mathematical extrapolation, Chinese understanding, and multimodal generation.。

 From attention to disappointment？

Thursday's launch was a watershed moment for China's tech industry, unveiling advances in artificial intelligence in the world's largest internet economy.。Best-selling author Kai-Fu Lee says China's AI efforts are currently lagging behind those of its U.S. rivals, but they should catch up over time, thanks to a large data pool and their experience in rapid technology rollouts.。

But with regard to the introduction of "Wen Xin Yi Yan," the press conference did not know the progress of the service in real time, but only watched a scripted video of interaction with artificial intelligence.。And some of the questions raised in the video seem to be very simple, which can be solved only by typical search engine services, such as: "Which part of China does the author of" Three-Body "come from?？"。This performance made the majority of investors extremely disappointed。Ten minutes after the launch, Baidu quickly fell 10% in HKEx trading, wiping out more than $4 billion in market value。

Yu Yingbo, chief investment officer at Shenzhen Qianhai United Wealth Fund Management Co., said: "It looks pre-recorded and so far it's just Powerpoint.。These presentations don't seem spontaneous。He didn't quote anything they pulled from the database, didn't quote their model, didn't compare it to ChatGPT。It's all very vague and theoretical。"

Forsyth Barr Asia Ltd.) Senior analyst Willer Chen said: "The stock movement shows that investors are disappointed with the release of" Wen Xin Yi Yan "because this demonstration is pre-recorded.。There's not much excitement about this release。"。

In response, Li said, "I can't say we're fully prepared.。It is a high standard to compare Wen Xinyiyan with ChatGPT, or even GPT-4, "he told reporters.。"No major technology company in the world has done it.。Baidu is the first one, "added Robin Li, who himself knows that the current ability of Wen Xin to speak is not perfect.。

Later, Robin Li explained that because there is market demand。He said that Baidu's various product lines, search, autopilot, small degree, etc., are waiting to use such technology。In the external market, customers and partners are also waiting, everyone is urging。That's why it had to be released at this time.。

Baidu will begin allowing consumers and cloud clients to sign up to access AI chatbots from Thursday, it said, without saying when they could actually use the service.。

Wen Xin said whether the follow-up can become Baidu's "cash cow"

Baidu has invested billions in AI and has long worked to reinvent itself from an online marketing company to a deeper technology provider.。Its Wenxin Yiyan AI system, a large machine learning model trained on years of data, will be the basis for its own chatbot as well as other products including image generators.。

Baidu is planning to embed Wenxin in all of its major operations, from flagship search apps to cloud computing and self-driving software.。Partners from automakers to news sites also said they would use Baidu's tools in their business.。

Macquarie analysts, including Esme Pau, wrote in a note on Tuesday that integrating Wenxin Yiyan with online search could reverse Baidu's loss of advertising market share, just as the company has benefited from recoveries in sectors such as travel and healthcare.。This year, its market capitalization grew by about 20 percent to more than $7 billion, outperforming most of its Chinese internet peers.。

"Baidu is clearly the leader.。There are other Chinese companies that will develop similar technologies, and there are startups, "Lee, founder of Sinovation Ventures, said in a media interview last week.。

The consequences of a failed release can be serious。A lesson in the past, Google owner Alphabet Inc. (Alphabet Inc..) 's share price plunged in February after its apprentice Bader gave a wrong answer in a demonstration, raising fears that its technology was lagging behind。On Wednesday, OpenAI released a new language model that lays the groundwork for its groundbreaking ChatGPT and says it will improve the accuracy and security of the tool.。

Internally, Baidu executives believe Wenxin Yiyan, which reached the same level as ChatGPT when it debuted in November, has the advantage of its understanding of Chinese language and culture.。

In addition to accuracy issues, Baidu and its domestic counterparts must ensure that their AI robots do not clash with Chinese regulators and censors.。ChatGPT is not directly available in China, and online platforms including Tencent WeChat have shut down local developers who plugged the tool into their own services.。

It is too early to judge whether Wen Xin can rise to the level of WeChat or Alibaba-led Taobao.。Although Baidu has been working hard for years to commercialize its artificial intelligence technology in the mobile era, its larger competitors have won users with more consumer-friendly products。

"The development of AI technology is at a turning point, and it will inevitably change various enterprises and industries," Li told employees in February.。