Chinese tech giant Baidu will partner with Samsung to integrate the functionality of its chatbot Ernie into Galaxy S24 smartphones in China. This report comes as a big surprise as most of Samsung's smartphones in other countries use technology from the rival company Google, which is under Alphabet's umbrella.
Samsung wants to compete with Apple in AI
This collaboration follows a global trend in integrating more AI features into personal devices, including smartphones, thanks to advances in semiconductor technology.
The Samsung S24 smartphone with AI-powered features from Baidu aims to use the technology to compete with Apple's latest iPhone models.
The collaboration will equip the latest Samsung Galaxy S24 smartphone lineup with advanced AI features.
Baidu's Ernie Bot
Baidu is an internet search provider in the Chinese language. The company has also developed Ernie Bot, which users can ask questions or invite to help them compose a market analysis, provide ideas for marketing slogans, or summarize large documents. Within the first 19 hours of its launch, Ernie Bot surpassed the 1 million user mark and reached 100 million users after four months.[1] Domestically, Ernie competes with companies such as Tencent's Hunyuan and Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen in the field of generative AI.
The most powerful version
Ernie is the Chinese tech giant's answer to OpenAI's ChatGPT, a chatbot powered by AI technology that is capable of generating human responses to user prompts.
About the latest version of Ernie 4.0, which was launched in October 2023, Baidu says it is "the most powerful version of the Ernie Foundation model to date" with full capabilities of comprehension, generating, reasoning and memorization.2 It can translate text and summarize long content into clear, cleverly arranged formats, making it easier to organize large amounts of text.
Baidu share price development
As is usually the case with similar stocks of growth technology companies, Baidu shares have also been very volatile. They reached their previous peaks in 2007, 2011, 2015, 2020 and February 2021, only to subsequently decline and remain at lower levels for several years.*
Baidu's stock value has had a rough start to 2024 after media reports stated that an organization affiliated with the People's Liberation Army, which oversees cyber warfare, tested its AI system using Baidu's very own Ernie chatbot. Baidu denied the rumors, saying the company had "not engaged in any business cooperation" with the institution.[2]
![Snímek obrazovky 2024-02-01 v 10.37.17](https://wcmsapmefx.blob.core.windows.net/apmefxpublic/1120/Snímek-obrazovky-2024-02-01-v 10.37.17.png)
Baidu's stock price evolution over the last 5 years. Source: tradingview.com*
Conclusion
The news of Chinese AI technology integration into Galaxy S24 smartphones in China comes as a surprise. This is because most Samsung smartphones in other countries use technology from Google, which is under Alphabet. The collaboration follows a global trend in integrating artificial intelligence into personal devices and could secure Baidu's future, which may eventually be reflected in the company's stock price. [1]
Adam Austera, principal analyst at Ozios
* Past performance is no guarantee of future results
[1] Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and current expectations, which may be inaccurate or based on the current economic environment, which may change. Such statements are not guarantees of future results. They involve risks and other uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Results may differ significantly from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/29/baidu-says-its-chatgpt-rival-ernie-bot-has-more-than-100-million-users.html
2 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/baidu-launches-ernie-4-0-foundation-model-leading-a-new-wave-of-ai-native-applications-301958681.html
3 https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/China-tech/Baidu-denies-report-linking-Ernie-AI-chatbot-to-military-research