Baidu Q4 Profits Drop Due to AI Investments; Ernie Bot Generates Hundreds of Millions in Revenue
• China tech Q4 net profit plunges on higher R&D spending • Baidu, which runs China's top search engine, has sought to reinvent itself as an AI company • Baidu generated "several hundred million yuan" in Q4 from Ernie Bot • Revenue primarily from ad tech improvement and helping companies build own models • Ernie Bot is Baidu's ChatGPT-like AI service