Baidu's Ernie bot refuses to answer questions about Xi

BEIJING Reuters -- Baidu's Ernie bot can generate pictures of flowers and write Tang dynasty style poems in a matter of seconds, but will decline questions about Chinese President Xi Jinping by saying it has not yet learned how to answer them, Reuters tests showed.

The Chinese search engine giant unveiled its closest rival to OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT last week, and allowed users to apply for access to it.

Some analysts and users started posting positive reviews of their experiences with Ernie bot, and side-by-side comparisons with ChatGPT, which caused Baidu's share price to go up.

There are questions about how Ernie and other Chinese chatbots would treat topics that are sensitive in mainland China, where authorities tightly censor the internet.

Tests by ChatGPT showed that the Microsoft-backed chatbot is not averse to answering such questions.

On Monday, Reuters asked questions to Ernie on Xi, such as whether he was a good leader, his contributions to China, and a request for a poem and portrait of him.

To some of the questions, it responded with a two-paragraph description of Xi's education and roles, but it didn't answer most of them.

As an AI large-scale language model, I have not learnt how to answer that question, you can ask me some other questions, I will do my best to help you solve them, the bot said.

It responded in a similar manner to questions about China's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority in the western region of Xinjiang.

It suggested that the user switch topics at times.

Let's change the subject and start again, read a prompt that Reuters received over a dozen times in response to sensitive questions.

Baidu didn't respond immediately to a request for comment.

Such answers were not limited to Xi or topics sensitive in China. When asked similar questions about U.S. President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump, the Ernie bot would produce the same restart prompts.

However, the bot was able to give long answers to questions about international relations, such as why U.S.-China relations have deteriorated, even though it changed subjects when asked about more controversial questions, such as whether China should use military force to unify with Taiwan.

Baidu has strict limits on political discussion because of requests by the government to censor the results of searches on sensitive topics.

When asked how it approaches sensitive issues, the bot said it took into account the relevant laws and moral standards when judging if a topic can be openly discussed. When unveiling Ernie Bot last week, the chatbot said it would improve exponentially with user feedback, and that it would take into account the relevant laws and moral standards when asked if a topic can be openly discussed.