"Until our company's official announcement, any Ernie app you see from App Store or other stores are fake," the Chinese search engine giant said in a statement

The format was changed to satisfy the 'strong demand' from 120,000 companies that had applied to test Ernie Bot, the search giant said

Ernie bot responded in a similar manner to questions about China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and the treatment of Uyghur Muslims

"Ernie Bot is not a tool of confrontation between China and the United States," said Baidu CEO Robin Li.

Users would become more dependent on the Baidu search engine once it is embedded with the AI-powered chatbot, company CEO Robin Li told reporters

Baidu also said earlier this week it will soon finish internal testing for a ChatGPT alternative called 'Ernie Bot'

Baidu will launch the chatbot as a standalone application and will gradually merge the service into its search engine

Tencent Holdings, Ant Group, Baidu and JD.com are among signatories to a pact to stop secondary trading in NFTs and other digital collectibles

Baidu is looking to sell its 53% stake in iQIYI, China's second biggest video streaming firm, according to sources, who said the deal could value the company at about $7 billion

The car, which doesn't have door handles and can be controlled by voice recognition, was launched at an online press conference held on Baidu's metaverse-themed app Xirang

Curbs in China to contain the spread of Covid-19 appeared to boost demand for Baidu's cloud services and AI products, helping the group record revenue that topped estimates

Baidu said the permit would allow 10 of its autonomous vehicles to offer rides on the open roads in the area, without human drivers sitting behind the wheel