Baidu slides 10% after report links Ernie AI to Chinese military By Investing.com

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<p>Investing.com– Hong Kong shares of <span itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Corporation"><span itemprop="name"> Baidu </span></span> Inc (NASDAQ:) slid as much as 10% on Monday after the South China Morning Post reported that the technology giant’s flagship Ernie artificial intelligence was used in testing by the People’s Liberation Army.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Baidu’s shares (HK:) fell 7.9% to HK$104.60 by 21:18 ET (02:18 GMT), after falling as far as 10% earlier in the session. The stock was headed for its worst day in nearly two years.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The broader index rose 0.1%.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that a research laboratory associated with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Strategic Support Force had tested an experimental AI system on Baidu’s Ernie and peer IFlyTek’s Spark large language models.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Baidu told the SCMP that the company had no affiliation with the laboratory, and that any version of the Ernie bot used in the testing was likely a publicly available version.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But the report ramped up concerns that any potential affiliation with the PLA could attract sanctions from the U.S., especially as both countries explore military applications of AI.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Baidu’s Ernie bot was the company’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, coming just a few months after the latter, amid a global push into large language models. Baidu had already begun monetizing the model by late-2023, logging stronger sales in the third quarter on revenue from its AI offerings.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Baidu’s Chinese peers <span itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Corporation"><span itemprop="name"> Alibaba </span></span> Group Holding (NYSE:) (HK:) and Tencent Holdings (HK:) had also raced to release their own offerings in 2023.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But China’s AI aspirations face some headwinds, particularly from the U.S. banning the sale of key AI-linked chips to Chinese entities. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:), which is the poster-child of making chips for AI development, can no longer sell its latest chips in China.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Tencent and Alibaba had warned that the ban could potentially hamper their AI development efforts. China has also hit back against the ban with sanctions of its own.</p>
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<br /><a href="https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/baidu-slides-10-after-report-links-ernie-ai-to-chinese-military-3274187">Source link </a></p><p>The post <a href="https://forextraderhub.com/baidu-slides-10-after-report-links-ernie-ai-to-chinese-military-by-investing-com.html">Baidu slides 10% after report links Ernie AI to Chinese military By Investing.com</a> first appeared on <a href="https://forextraderhub.com">Forex Trader Hub</a>.</p>