“Let’s talk about something else.”
That is a frequent response you get from China’s newest sensation, Ernie, if you ask it “difficult” questions.
The chatbot, launched by search engine giant Baidu, deflects anything deemed too sensitive.
Ernie, touted as Baidu’s answer to ChatGPT, was introduced with great fanfare in recent weeks, pumping up the company’s shares. Baidu said it had received 33.42 million user enquiries within the first 24 hours of operation, averaging 23,000 questions per minute.
Another Chinese tech giant, Tencent, announced on Thursday that it had also launched a chatbot. However, that is currently only open to “invited users” – which seems to mostly mean companies.