In comparison tests, both bots performed well on tasks such as helping an employee ask for a raise or creating healthy meal plans. However, ERNIE was found to be more opinionated on controversial topics, reflecting the viewpoints of Chinese officials and state media. Despite improvements in ERNIE's performance, an industry benchmark still rates GPT-4 as superior. Baidu claims ERNIE has 70 million users, compared to an estimated 150 million for ChatGPT.
Key takeaways:
- ERNIE Bot 4.0, developed by Chinese tech giant Baidu, is considered to be on par with the industry-leading chatbot GPT-4, according to Baidu's CEO Robin Li.
- ERNIE outperformed GPT-4 on certain prompts related to current affairs, but struggled with creating a traditional haiku and was unable to discuss sensitive topics related to Chinese politics.
- OpenAI, the owner of GPT-4, has acknowledged the need to expand its knowledge base and plans to incorporate more information in its next version.
- Despite improvements in ERNIE's comprehension, generation, and reasoning, an industry benchmark still rates its performance as inferior to GPT-4, but notes that the gap has narrowed.