(JW Insights) Feb 24 -- Chinese tech giant Baidu plans to build an ecosystem around Ernie Bot, its own ChatGPT-style AI chatbot, by fully incorporating it into all of its products and services, reported Yicai Global on February 23, citing the company’s Chief Executive Officer Robin Li.

Ernie Bot will be integrated into Baidu's search engine, Xiaodu smart devices, AI Cloud, self-driving service, and more, Li, who is also the firm’s co-founder, said on an earnings conference call on February 22. Ernie Bot will debut next month, he added.

Several other companies have also decided to integrate Baidu's chatbot into their products and services, Li added, and the Beijing-based company is building an AI ecosystem around it, reported Yicai Global.

Baidu is going all out to ensure the debut of its ChatGPT-like service, having appointed Chief Technology Officer Wang Haifeng to head the project, according to a February 17 report by Chinese tech news site 36Kr.

Baidu has been engaged in the field of artificial intelligence for more than ten years. At the 2022 Baidu Create AI Developer Conference on January 10, 2023, Li said artificial intelligence had undergone directional changes, both at the technical and commercial application levels in the past year.

Apart from its efforts in AI technologies, Baidu has been pushing its autonomous ride-hailing service - Apollo Go. The business soared 162 percent to 561,000 in the fourth quarter from a year ago, while total rides exceeded 2 million as of the end of January. It has a self-driving taxi service in Wuhan and Chongqing and received Beijing's first license to test vehicles with no driver or safety operator onboard last December.