By Li Panpan

(JW Insights) Aug 31 -- Chinese tech heavyweight Baidu announced on August 31 that its large language model Ernie Bot will be fully open to the general public starting August 31.

Users can download Ernie Bot from various app stores or experience it through its official website and the company will also launch a series of new AI-native apps, reported JW Insights.

Baidu Co-founder and CEO Robin Li said by making Ernie Bot available to hundreds of millions of internet users, Baidu will collect massive, valuable, real-world human feedback. It will not only help improve the company's foundation model but also iterate Ernie Bot at a much faster pace.

A batch of other Chinese companies and research institutions on August 31 opened their artificial intelligence-powered large language models to the public after receiving approval from Chinese authorities, reported China Daily on August 31.

They include Chinese tech heavyweight ByteDance; AI firms Baichuan Intelligent Technology, SenseTime, Zhipu AI, MiniMax; as well as research institutes the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

In July, Chinese authorities issued a 24-item guideline for managing generative AI services. The country will encourage the innovative development of generative AI and supervise the technology using methods compatible with innovation and development, according to interim measures.

The authorities also said providers who wanted to offer services to the public would need to submit security assessments, according to the China Daily report.