Robin Li said Baidu launched ERNIE Bot on March 16 of the year before the interview.
“We launched Ernie Bot, um, I think March 16th, uh, of last year.”
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Robin Li
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Robin Li said Baidu reduced ERNIE Bot's inference cost by about 99%, to roughly 1% of the original cost.
“being able to reduce the cost by about 99%, meaning the current inference cost is about 1% of the original cost”
Robin Li said the accuracy problem of large language model answers has pretty much been solved over the past eighteen months.
“I think over the past eighteen months, that problem has pretty much been solved.”
Robin Li said the internet's rise in the mid to late 1990s produced a huge bubble, which he compared to the current generative AI cycle.
“We've seen this, uh, many times, uh, when the internet took off in in the mid to late Ninety's, uh, and uh, there was a huge bubble.”
Robin Li said that with an open source AI model, users basically get only a set of parameters.
“because for an open source model, you what you basically get is is a bunch of parameters.”
Robin Li said Baidu's internal customers for ERNIE Bot include Baidu Search, Baidu Maps and Baidu Wenku.
“our internal customers, Baidu search, Baidu map, and, uh, uh, Baidu, uh, Wenku.”
Robin Li said Baidu charges the inference cost for API calls to its ERNIE models.
“basically we we charge, uh, the the the inference cost for those, uh, API calls.”
Robin Li said Baidu has more than 400 robotaxis in Wuhan, a city of about 9 million people.
“we now have more than 400 cars in the city of Wuhan that covers about 9 million people”
Robin Li said Baidu's robotaxi brand is Apollo Go and its fares are typically cheaper than regular taxis.
“Our brand is called Apollo Go. They pay a fare that's typically, you know, cheaper than, uh, uh, regular taxi.”
Robin Li said Baidu's robotaxi technology is at level four, meaning driverless operation within defined areas, not level five anywhere and anytime.
“But, uh, for level four, I think we are at this stage, the the we we are at level four”
Robin Li said the main bottleneck for robotaxis is regulation rather than technology.
“Right now, the the bottleneck is is more about regulation.”
Robin Li estimated it may take another decade for robotaxi service to become mainstream.
“It's probably gonna take probably ano- another decade for the robotaxi service to be really everywhere to to become mainstream”
Robin Li said many people compare the generative AI revolution to the industrial revolution, and he is optimistic it will create more jobs than it removes.
“a lot of people compare the generative AI revolution to, uh, the industrial revolution.”
Robin Li said AI-driven job change will take ten to thirty years to unfold, giving people time to prepare.
“It will take, you know, ten years, maybe twenty years, some maybe thirty years to happen.”
Robin Li said Baidu's strategy is to rebuild almost all of its existing products on the ERNIE Bot foundation model.
“Companies like Baidu, our strategy is to reconstruct and rebuild almost every one of our existing product based on the Ernie Bot, um, foundation model.”
Robin Li said over 18% of Baidu search results were generated by ERNIE Bot.
“right now, over 18% of the Baidu search result, uh, are they generated by, uh, Ernie Bot.”
Robin Li said Baidu can now create digital humans to host live-streaming shopping, with scripts generated by ERNIE Bot.
“we now can create digital digital human to do live streaming shopping.”
Robin Li said Baidu is a NASDAQ-listed public company that complies with applicable law.
“Baidu is a NASDAQ-listed, uh, public company, and, uh, we would follow, we will we we would comply with any applicable law.”
Robin Li said Baidu has a data compliance committee chaired by high-ranking executives.
“We have, uh, uh, uh, data, uh, compliance committee within, uh, our company with, uh, very, uh, high-ranking executives, um, uh, being the the chair”
Robin Li argued that the efficiency gains from generative AI will more than offset its power consumption.
“I would argue that, uh, the efficiency gain, the value created through this kind of innovation will more than, uh, you know, offset the the power consumption.”
Robin Li used a figure of about 200,000 per year as what engineers get paid today, to illustrate the value of programming skills.
“Nowadays, the the the engineers, the programs get paid like, let's say, you know, 200,000 per year”
Robin Li said that when he was in college he learned programming languages and assembly language.
“when when when I was in college, we we learn programming language, we we then we learn assembly language.”