Baidu CEO Robin Li Calls for Increased Pace of AI Development at VivaTech

On May 22, Baidu‘s Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO, Robin Li, made an appearance at VivaTech, a major European tech event held in Paris. He engaged in an insightful chat with Maurice Lévy, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Publicis Groupe.

During their chat, Li discussed the current state and future of AI. He expressed his concern that AI technology isn’t advancing quickly enough, despite the impressive progress made in recent years.

Li also shared his views on the timeline for achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). He believes that it’s more than a decade away, contrary to those who think it’s just a few years off.

Li is a strong advocate for an application-driven approach to AI. He believes this strategy can speed up the transition from the internet age to the AI age. He also noted that in China, the emphasis is on developing super apps or killer AI native apps for the AI age. One such example is Baidu‘s ERNIE Bot, a conversational AI bot launched in March 2023, which now boasts 200 million users.

Li also shared his anticipation for the emergence of a new format that can effectively harness AI and meet consumer demand. He expects this new format to gain popularity and achieve a daily active user count of over 100 million.

A day before the VivaTech event, Li was a guest of French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace. There, he emphasized the responsibility of companies like Baidu to ensure AI develops in a socially responsible manner.

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