Baidu clarified on Watch Honest Thief OnlineMonday evening that it does not have any partnership with any of China’s military organizations after a report linked the company’s ChatGPT-like technology to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), causing shares of the search giant to see their largest drop since 2022. A report in the South China Morning Post originally said that an academy paper written by scholars at a PLA-affiliated research institute had disclosed a link with the Chinese technology giant. The academy paper used Baidu’s ChatGPT-like ERNIE Bot as an example to describe how it generates battlefield maneuvers and predicts opponent actions based on combat information prompts, which SCMP reported as forging a “physical link” between Baidu and PLA. The outlet later removed the saying. “Baidu does not provide any customized services to the military,” according to the company’s statement, adding that the ERNIE Bot used by the academy paper’s author was the general version accessible to the public since August. [Baidu]
