Baidu Inc (9988. HK), a Chinese search engine, announced a 1 billion yuan ($145 million) venture capital fund to support AI-focused startups.
It will also hold a competition for developers to build apps on its ERNIE large language model (LLM) or incorporate it into their products.
Following OpenAI’s ChatGPT’s huge popularity, Chinese tech companies have rushed to release their LLMs.
This week’s research stated that about 80 Chinese organizations have launched LLMs since 2020, surpassing US releases this year.
Baidu launched the AI-powered LLM Ernie Bot in March. After that, Chinese enterprises like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988. HK) followed fast.
China released a draft of generative AI legislation in April to address the LLM boom.