Chinese search giant Baidu introduces Ernie Bot

FILE PHOTO: Baidu's co-founder and CEO Robin Li delivers a keynote speech at the opening session of Baidu's annual AI developers conference Baidu Create 2019 in Beijing, China, July 3, 2019. REUTERS/Yilei Sun

BEIJING (Reuters) - Baidu on Thursday unveiled its much-anticipated artificial intelligence-powered chatbot known as Ernie Bot, with its CEO saying that it was the culmination of the firm's years of hard work in artificial intelligence.

The bot was not perfect but they were releasing it now because of market demand, Robin Li said at a media conference in Beijing.