Introduction
As artificial intelligence becomes a part of our everyday lives, competition is heating up among tech companies. Now, Chinese Tech Giant Baidu is stepping up to the plate with their latest creation, the Ernie bot. In this blog, we will be exploring the rise of the Ernie bot, looking into what makes it special, and discussing if it really can surpass chat GPT.
What is Ernie Bot?
Ernie bot is Baidu's latest generative AI product and knowledge-enhanced large language model. It was introduced on March 16, 2023, at a press conference at Baidu's headquarters in Beijing. According to Baidu, the Ernie bot can comprehend human intentions and deliver accurate, logical, and fluent responses approaching the human level. It can interact in dialogue, create content, reason with knowledge, and generate multiple modes of output.
Ernie bot is based on a series of models called Ernie (Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration) and Plato (Pre-trained Dialogue Generation Model) that Baidu has been developing since 2019. Ernie is a foundational AI model that can learn from large-scale knowledge and unlabeled data based on semantic units. Plato is a dialogue-generation model that can handle various types of conversations such as chit-chat, knowledge-grounded, and task-oriented.
Ernie bot is the latest version of these models, called Ernie 3.5 Titan. It has over double the parameters to work with compared to chat GPT3 and is almost on par with the more advanced GPT4. It also has some unique features that make it stand out from other chatbots, such as plugins and search integration.
Plugins
One of the features that set Ernie bot apart is plugins. Plugins are modules that can be added to the Ernie bot to enhance its functionality and performance. They can provide additional information, skills, or services to users. For example, one plugin is called "Wen Shin Yiga," which means "one word from the heart." This plugin allows the Ernie bot to generate creative content such as poems, stories, essays, songs, etc., based on user input or prompts.
Another plugin is called "Wen Shin Chan Fan," which means "a thousand sales from the heart." This plugin allows Ernie bot to write business documents such as resumes, proposals, reports, etc., based on user input or templates.
Search Integration
Ernie bot can leverage Baidu's search engine to retrieve relevant information from the web and use it for knowledge reasoning and prompt construction. This means that Ernie bot can access a vast amount of data and knowledge from various sources and domains and use it to generate more accurate, logical, and diverse responses.
For example, if a user asks Ernie bot about the weather in Vienna today, Ernie bot can use Baidu's search engine to find the current weather information from reliable websites and report it back to the user. Or if a user asks Ernie bot to write a poem about love, Ernie bot can use Baidu's search engine to find some examples of love poems from famous poets and use them as inspiration or reference for its own poem.
Ernie Bot Performance
Baidu claims that Ernie bot surpasses chat GPT and GPT4 in certain key areas. To prove this claim, Baidu conducted several tests and benchmarks using different types of evaluation methods.
Standard Admission and Qualification Exams
One of these methods is using standard admission and qualification exams that are widely used in China for education and employment purposes. These exams cover diverse subjects such as language, math, logic, history, geography, politics, law, medicine, etc. Baidu says that Ernie bot achieved an average score of 85% on these exams, which is higher than the average score of human candidates (75%) and much higher than chat GPT (55%) and GPT4 (60%). This shows that Ernie bot has a strong grasp of general knowledge and can handle complex questions across various domains.
Multiple Choice Question Evaluation (MCQE)
Another method is using multiple choice question evaluation (MCQE), which is a common way of measuring the natural language understanding ability of AI models. MCQE consists of questions that have four possible answers each. The questions are taken from different sources such as textbooks, news articles, novels, etc. Baidu says that Ernie bot achieved an average accuracy of 92% on MCQE, which is higher than chat GPT (88%) and GPT4 (90%). This shows that Ernie bot can understand the meaning and context of natural language texts better than other chat bots.
General Language Understanding Evaluation Conversational Question Answering (GlueCoQA)
The third method is using a test developed by a group of U.S. universities called GlueCoQA (General Language Understanding Evaluation Conversational Question Answering). This test measures the conversational question answering ability of AI models. It consists of dialogues between a human and a chat bot, where the human asks questions about a given passage and the chat bot answers them. Baidu says that Ernie bot achieved an average F1 score of 88% on GlueCoQA, which is higher than chat GPT (82%) and GPT4 (85%). This shows that Ernie bot can handle conversational question answering better than other chat bots.
These are some of the tests and benchmarks that Baidu used to compare Ernie bot with chat GPT and GPT4. Of course, these are not the only ways to evaluate chat bots, and there may be some limitations and biases in these methods. But they do give us some idea of how Ernie bot performs in different scenarios and tasks.
The Future of AI and Chatbot Technology
Ernie bot's performance shows that there is a new player in the game, and it's a formidable one. Ernie bot is not only a challenge to chat GPT, but also to other chat bots and AI models in the market. It shows that Baidu is serious about developing cutting-edge AI technology and competing with other tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.
Baidu is not the only Chinese company that is investing in AI and chatbot technology. Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, and others are also developing their own models and products. China has a huge market for AI applications, especially in areas such as education, healthcare, entertainment, e-commerce, etc. There is a lot of demand and potential for chat bots that can provide information, guidance, assistance, and entertainment to users.
But China is not only interested in serving its domestic market. It also wants to expand its global influence and presence in the AI field. It wants to showcase its technological prowess and innovation to the world. It wants to challenge the dominance of the US and other countries in AI research and development.
This means that we can expect more competition and collaboration between Chinese and non-Chinese companies and researchers in the future. We can also expect more innovation and diversity in AI and chatbot technology as different models and products try to cater to different needs and preferences of users.
Conclusion
Ernie bot, Baidu's latest creation, is making bold claims about outperforming chat GPT. Through a series of tests and benchmarks, Baidu has shown that Ernie bot has a strong grasp of general knowledge, can understand natural language texts better than other chat bots, and can handle conversational question answering with high accuracy.
Ernie bot's unique features, such as plugins and search integration, further enhance its functionality and performance. It allows Ernie bot to generate creative content and leverage a vast amount of data and knowledge from the web. However, there are still challenges to overcome, such as ensuring the reliability and quality of the information pulled from the internet and addressing the ethical and social implications of AI chat bots.
Overall, Ernie bot's rise signifies the advancement of AI and chatbot technology. It presents a formidable challenge to existing models and opens up new possibilities for innovation and collaboration in the field. As AI becomes more integrated into our everyday lives, we can expect to see more exciting developments and applications in the future.
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