(Yicai Global) Feb. 23 -- Baidu plans to build an ecosystem around Ernie Bot, its own ChatGPT-style artificial intelligent chatbot, by fully incorporating it into all of the Chinese tech giant’s products and services, Chief Executive Robin Li said.

Ernie Bot will be integrated into Baidu's search engine, Xiaodu smart devices, AI Cloud, self-driving service, and more, Li, who is also the firm’s co-founder, said on an earnings conference call yesterday. Ernie Bot will debut next month, he added.

Several other companies have also decided to integrate Baidu's chatbot into their products and services, Li  added, and the Beijing-based company is building an AI ecosystem around it.

Baidu is going all out to ensure the debut of its ChatGPT-like service, having appointed Chief Technology Officer Wang Haifeng to head the project, according to a Feb. 17 report by Chinese tech news site 36Kr.

Based on non-generally accepted accounting principles, Baidu's net profit rose 10 percent to CNY20.7 billion (USD3 billion) last year from 2021, mainly driven by cost optimization and improved business efficiency, its financial report showed yesterday. Revenue fell 0.7 percent to CNY123.7 billion (USD17.93 billion).

Fourth-quarter revenue remained flat at CNY33.1 billion compared with a year earlier, while net income was CNY1.8 billion, after a fair value gain of CNY1.6 billion from long-term investments. 

Rides provided by Apollo Go, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service, soared 162 percent to 561,000 in the fourth quarter from a year ago, while total rides exceeded 2 million as of the end of January. It has a self-driving taxi service in Wuhan and Chongqing and received Beijing's first license to test vehicles with no driver or safety operator onboard last December.

Baidu also announced that its board has approved a new share repurchase program to buy as much as USD5 billion of the company’s stock, effective through 2025.

Share of Baidu [HKG: 9888] dipped 0.5 percent to close at HKD139.80 (USD17.82) in Hong Kong today. In pre-market trading in New York, its stock [NASDAQ: BIDU] was up 2.3 percent at USD140.30 as of 4.39 a.m. local time, after falling 2.6 percent yesterday.

Editor: Martin Kadiev