Baidu was the first company to launch a Chinese alternative to ChatGPT. Credit: Sharaf Maksumov via Shutterstock.

Baidu, an internet major and the first Chinese company to launch an alternative to ChatGPT, has started embedding the offering in its search product, reported South China Morning Post.

The company introduced a beta version of its “AI Mate” chatbot, similar to Microsoft’s Bing Chat, which is now visible to select users on Baidu’s search engine landing page.

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The chatbot leverages the technology from Ernie Bot, a service similar to ChatGPT that Baidu introduced in March.

Users were instructed to give “feedback to help it improve” once AI Mate was opened.

Additionally, it avoided political questions and solely quoted domestic sources, the publication said.

Baidu, which is based in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the news.

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The development comes as other major technology firms, including Google, are rushing to launch services powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Generative AI is a category of machine learning (ML) technology that produces content such as images, texts, audio, code and video in response to prompts.

As per the report, Baidu’s AI chatbot refrained from answering political questions due to current limitations in mainland China.

If prompted to evaluate Chinese political leaders, the chatbot said: “The content violates rules that it will not answer.”

Last month, the country’s top internet regulator Cyberspace Administration of China released preliminary guidelines mandating a security clearance for generative AI services to be able to operate.

Other than Baidu, e-commerce company Alibaba, AI tech company SenseTime and iFlyTek, a voice recognition company, have launched services similar to ChatGPT.