Baidu to 'fully integrate' conversational AI chatbot across all of its operations: CEO
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Coming on back of a strong fourth-quarter that topped Wall Street expectations, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) also said it would "fully integrate" its conversational artificial intelligence chatbot across all of its operations.
In a letter to employees, Baidu (BIDU) co-founder, chairman and CEO Robin Li said the company's ERNIE Bot, unveiled earlier this month, would be integrated across all of Baidu's (BIDU) operations, including search and AI Cloud, ushering in "fundamental" changes in the product offerings and markets.
Li added the ERNIE Bot would also be integrated into the Apollo Smart Cabin and Xiaoduâs smart devices and services over time.
"The Chinese AI market is on the verge of experiencing an explosive growth in demand, releasing unprecedented and exponential commercial value," Li wrote in the letter. 
Baidu (BIDU) shares erased early gains and fell more than 4% despite strong fourth-quarter results as well as a new $5B share buyback program. 
Following the results from Baidu (BIDU), Alibaba (BABA), JD.com (JD), Bilibili (BILI) and Pinduoduo (PDD) were among the Chinese tech stocks higher in premarket trading on Wednesday.
The move to integrate the ERNIE Bot into Baidu's (BIDU) operations comes as Chinese regulators have reportedly told major Chinese tech companies to not offer ChatGPT services.
Regulators told Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY) and Alibaba's (BABA) Ant Group to not offer access to the service on their platforms, either directly or via a third-party, Nikkei Asia reported, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.
On Tuesday, Aurora Mobile (JG) said it would become one of the first ecosystem partners of Baidu's (BIDU) ERNIE Bot.