The Chinese search engine Baidu has filed a lawsuit against Apple and “relevant” app developers for selling counterfeit versions of its recently released Ernie bot app on the App Store. The artificial intelligence-powered chatbot Ernie has been regarded as the most competitive substitute for the US-developed ChatGPT in China.
Late on Friday, Baidu declared that it has filed cases in Beijing Haidian People’s Court against Apple and the app developers who created the knockoff versions of its Ernie bot. There isn’t yet an official Ernie app accessible, according to a comment from the company on its official “Baidu AI” WeChat account.
Baidu Vs Apple
It also uploaded a picture of their court document, emphasizing that until a formal notice is made, any Ernie apps that are accessible through the App Store or other stores are fake. Apple has not yet responded to the situation. According to a search done by Reuters on Saturday, at least four applications with the Chinese name “Ernie bot” are still available on the App Store, but they are all fake.
According to Baidu, those who have gotten legitimate access codes are the only ones who can access the Ernie bot. In its statement, the business also issued a warning against anyone who tries to sell access codes.
The AI-powered chatbot known as Ernie, which stands for “Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration,” was introduced by Baidu in March of this year. Due to the popularity of Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, Chinese entrepreneurs and tech companies are racing to develop a rival.
The Ernie bot was once exclusively available to a small number of people with invitation credentials, but now businesses may apply to incorporate the bot into their products using Baidu’s cloud platform.