China Big Tech firms experiment with personalised chatbots amid push to monetise generative AI technologies

Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace has featured a shop with a new kind of virtual product – a digital assistant called Duxiaoxiao. This range of digital assistants are powered by Ernie Bot, Baidu’s AI chatbot, and are tailored to buyers’ preferences. — SCMP

Chinese Big Tech firms are ramping up efforts to make money from consumer-facing generative artificial intelligence (AI) services in a market where OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard have no access.

With China’s annual Singles’ Day shopping festival in full flow, Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao marketplace has featured a shop with a new kind of virtual product – a digital assistant called Duxiaoxiao. This range of virtual assistants are powered by Ernie Bot, Baidu’s AI chatbot, and are tailored to buyers’ preferences. Alibaba also owns the South China Morning Post.