Chinese internet giant Baidu released its ChatGPT-like Ernie Bot just last year and now, according to the company's Chief Technology Officer Wang Haifeng, has surpassed 100 million users.
The milestone was announced at a deep learning summit in Beijing. Its initial unveiling was in March and was followed by a five-month trial period in which only select users were allowed to test the capabilities of Ernie Bot.
By comparison, OpenAI's ChatGPT became the world's fastest-growing software application in less than six months of existence.
Speculators have valued OpenAI at over $80 billion, with Microsoft investing $13 billion in a subsidiary, giving it a 49% stake.
Rueters is reporting that Baidu CEO Robin Lin has long Ernie Bot's potential to help the company gain market share in such areas as search engines, cloud, and smart cars.
According to rankings published this week in SuperCLUE, Ernie Bot is higher than all other Chinese chatbots. However, it is still ranked lower than the latest version of ChatGPT.
SuperCLUE describes himself as a benchmark for testing the performance of large language models in Chinese applications, such as querying, dialogues, and preferences. While Ernie Bot was awarded a score of 79.02, ChatGPT's score is nearly 90.
This week HNGN reported that Microsoft quietly rolled out Copilot AI for free as a ChatGPT-like app for Android devices that is equipped with AI features and capabilities.
The app is freely available at Google Play but it requires users to sign in using their Microsoft account if they want to gain access to more questions and longer conversations with the AI chatbot.
