Samsung replaces Google AI with Baidu AI on Galaxy S24 devices in China

HONG KONG — Samsung will not use Galaxy AI features in its Galaxy S24 lineup in China and would instead rely upon Chinese tech giant Baidu’s Ernie AI, owing to Google’s limited presence in the country.

Ernie AI will offer same Galaxy AI features based on Gemini foundational models, like AI-based real-time call translation, summarisation, and text format features on the Chinese version of the Galaxy S24 series, reports CNBC.

The Galaxy S24 phones will also get a Chinese version of Google’s ‘Circle to Search’ feature.

“Now featuring Ernie’s understanding and generation capabilities, the upgraded Samsung Note Assistant can translate content and also summarise lengthy content into clear, intelligently organized formats at the click of a button,” Samsung Electronics China and Baidu said in a statement.

Ernie chatbot is powered by AI technology that’s able to generate human-like responses to users’ prompts. The Ernie 4.0 version was launched on October.

Baidu claims it is the “most powerful version of Ernie foundation model to date”.

“It has been significantly improved compared to the online version of Ernie bot and now it is not inferior to GPT-4,” said CEO Robin Li during the ‘Baidu World 2023’ event in October.

The arrival of ChatGPT — and a barrage of AL models from US-based tech giants like Bard, Gemini and LLaMA — forced Chinese tech companies to develop their own large language models (LLMs).

Baidu developed Ernie Bot and Alibaba Group built its own LLM called Tongyi Qianwen.

Also read: Samsung opens pre-booking for locally manufactured Galaxy S24 series in India