Why Baidu Shares Are Trading Lower Premarket Today

Baidu, Inc BIDU shares declined premarket after founder Robin Li opted for a pre-recorded video to introduce its ChatGPT equivalent, "Ernie Bot" on Thursday.

Baidu's shares fell as much as 10% in afternoon trading in Hong Kong, wiping out over $4 billion of its value, Bloomberg reports.

Li's scripted video of interactions with the AI disappointed as everybody looked for a more full, real-life demo.

The video raises questions about Ernie's ability to match OpenAI's ChatGPT, which met with mixed success.

Yu Yingbo, chief investment officer at Shenzhen Qianhai United Fortune Fund Management Co, flagged the lack of spontaneity and performance versus ChatGPT in the vague and theoretical pre-recorded Powerpoints.

There weren't many exciting things from the launch, said Willer Chen, senior analyst at Forsyth Barr Asia Ltd.

"I can't say we are fully ready. Benchmarking Ernie Bot against ChatGPT, or even GPT-4, is a high bar," Li told reporters. "None of the Big Tech firms globally has made it. Baidu is the first one," he said, adding his own testing experience showed the product "isn't perfect."

Baidu will let consumers and cloud clients register for access to the AI chatbot starting Thursday but failed to say when they could use the service.

Chinese AI efforts should catch up over time thanks to vast data hoards and their experience with rapid tech rollouts, according to industry pioneer and bestselling author Kai-Fu Lee. 

Lee anticipates China can come up with substitutes or find workarounds to counter growing U.S. restrictions on the export of American technology, including the highest-end Nvidia Corp NVDA processors needed to train AI models. 

Shares of Google owner Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL plunged in February after its Bard answered incorrectly during a demonstration.

Internally, Baidu execs think Ernie Bot had reached the same level as ChatGPT when the latter debuted in November. Still, Ernie's edge lies in its understanding of the Chinese language and culture.

While Baidu struggled to commercialize its AI technology over the years in the mobile era, its bigger rivals like Tencent Holding Ltd TCEHY and Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA won over users with more consumer-friendly products.

Price Action: BIDU shares traded lower by 5.92% at $125.22 premarket on the last check Thursday.