Baidu’s most recent AI product Ernie 4. fails to wow investors, but analysts manage ‘buy’ rankings

Analysts are bullish on Chinese tech big Baidu’s most recent model of its generative artificial intelligence product, Ernie 4., but traders did not react positively to the improvement.

“We arrived away positively subsequent the announcement of quite a few new merchandise including the official debut of Ernie 4.,” claimed Citi analysts in a report, right after Baidu announced a “appreciably enhanced” variation of Ernie 4. on Tuesday.

“CEO Robin Li also declared the rebuilding of all apps in just the Baidu ecosystem with deeper AI integration,” the analysts stated, maintaining a “acquire” score at a target value of $182.

Through Baidu Planet 2023, Li stated: “This is the most strong edition of Ernie basis model to date, upgraded in its entirety, below the entire capabilities [of] comprehending technology reasoning and memory.”

At the company’s once-a-year flagship tech convention, Li demonstrated Ernie 4.0’s means to compose a martial arts novel in actual-time, create advertising posters and movies with prompts, program a journey itinerary as nicely as clear up intricate math complications.

“A substantial advancement in [comprehension, generation, reasoning and memory] capabilities is observed in Ernie 4., with 3.6x advancement in schooling algorithm,” mentioned Jefferies analysts in Tuesday report, maintaining a “get” ranking with a $216 value concentrate on.

The Chinese tech large claimed Ernie 4.0′s abilities are on par with people of ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s GPT-4 model. “It has been drastically enhanced when compared to the on the internet edition of Ernie bot and now it is not inferior to GPT-4,” Li explained to an audience of analysts, traders and journalists.

Baidu 1st unveiled Ernie 3. on March 16 to a confined pool of end users.

The enterprise released the 3.5 edition in June, and claimed that Ernie 3.5 outperformed ChatGPT and GPT 4 in many essential regions.

It officially opened accessibility to the public on Aug. 30 soon after finding federal government approval.

“Baidu’s assertion that it is now on par with GPT-4 marks a substantial milestone for the Chinese tech huge,” Xiaolin Chen, head of worldwide at KraneShares, explained to CNBC.

However, she pointed out that the efficacy of AI products can fluctuate relying on specific use circumstances and duties.

“Analyzing Ernie across a varied array of applications would be instrumental in generating a far more detailed comparison with other products. It truly is also truly worth noting that immediate comparison amongst various AI styles can be demanding, owing to the assorted procedures and benchmarks used in screening,” said Chen.

However, traders did not respond positively to the advancement.

Baidu’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed 1.65% reduced on Tuesday, underperforming a .75% increase in the Cling Seng Index. Its Nasdaq-stated shares slid 4.12%.

“We believe that investors keep on being worried in excess of extensive-expression difficulties this sort of as how Baidu will offer with chip sanctions and other important dangers that could impede even more development of the firm’s AI business enterprise, which have been in no way dealt with through CEO Robin Li’s presentation,” wrote Kai Wang, senior fairness analysis analyst at Morningstar Asia.

“The conference highlighted some of the model’s abilities relatively than offering an update on the lengthy-phrase strategic direction of Baidu’s AI business enterprise as there was a lack of new steerage for the company,” reported Wang in a report.

Substantial language models this sort of as ChatGPT and Ernie demand significant-performance memory chips. These types of chips permit generative AI versions to remember information from earlier discussions and user choices in purchase to create humanlike responses.

On Tuesday, the U.S. banned exports of additional AI chips, including Nvidia H800, to China.

Past week, Washington tightened policies aimed at limiting China’s ability to receive or manufacture high-tech semiconductor chips. Washington is anxious that China would use this kind of significant-tech chips to progress its armed service abilities.

– CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.