Tech firm Baidu denies report that its Ernie AI chatbot is linked to Chinese military research
ABC News
The technology company Baidu is refuting a newspaper report that said its artificial intelligence chatbot Ernie was linked to Chinese military research
HONG KONG -- HONG KONG (AP) — Technology company Baidu on Monday refuted a newspaper report that said its artificial intelligence chatbot Ernie was linked to Chinese military research.
Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post on Friday cited an academic paper from a university affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army cyberwarfare division. The paper stated that the division had tested its artificial intelligence system on Baidu’s Ernie and on artificial intelligence firm iFlyTek’s Spark, both of which are language-based AI chatbots similar to ChatGPT.
After its Hong Kong-listed stock plunged more than 11.5% Monday, Baidu denied the allegations, saying in a statement that it had not engaged in a business collaboration with the paper's authors or their affiliated institutions.
“Ernie Bot is available to and used by the general public,” the Chinese company said in its statement.
The academic paper from the PLA Information Engineering University detailed how researchers had given Ernie Bot prompts to generate simulated military response plans for Libyan troops in response to a U.S. military attack.
