Han Ximin

1824295095@qq.com

BAIDU, Inc., a leading AI company in China, showcased a suite of AI models and development toolkits at the Create 2024 Baidu AI Developer Conference held in Shenzhen yesterday. These tools were designed to empower individuals of all backgrounds to innovate and create with AI technology.

Robin Li, the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Baidu, took center stage at the conference, offering insights into how Baidu is empowering AI developers with increasingly versatile and easy-to-use models and tools to build a stronger and more dynamic AI ecosystem.

“In the future, natural language will emerge as the new programming language. Simply being able to speak can make you a developer, empowering you to shape the world with your creativity,” Li said.

To help developers quickly and effectively tap into the latest AI development trends, Baidu has introduced three plug-and-play AI development toolkits that cover a wide spectrum of the AI development pipeline.

AgentBuilder, leveraging the power of ERNIE, stands out as a key development tool for building and deploying AI agents. It offers both zero-code and low-code modes, enabling even non-coders to create an agent with just a few sentences. AppBuilder is a comprehensive set of tools tailored for AI-native applications on the Baidu AI Cloud. ModelBuilder serves as a customizable tool for developers, curating up to 77 models across various sizes, from ERNIE 3.5 and 4.0 to lightweight models like ERNIE Speed, ERNIE Lite, ERNIE Tiny, and many more third-party models.

Over one year after ERNIE Bot’s public debut, ERNIE is now hailed as China’s leading AI foundation model with the broadest range of applications. ERNIE Bot has amassed a total of 200 million users.

Create 2024 also witnessed the launch of Apollo VTA (Vision Takes All), Baidu’s visionary foundation model for autonomous driving. Apollo VTA has been trained on real data collected from over 100 million kilometers of test drives on complex urban roads. The model boasts four foundational capabilities in visual perception: detection, tracking, understanding, and map building. Together, they offer a smarter, more adaptable, and safer autonomous driving solution.

At the conference, Li announced the launch of the second Baidu ERNIE Cup Innovation Challenge, a competition for visionaries pursuing the next iconic model products or applications for the generative AI era. This latest ERNIE Cup will offer a special prize, with the winner receiving cash and resource rewards totaling 50 million yuan (US$7 million).

The full-day Create 2024 event featured more than 20 industry forums and over 30 AI development open classes.