5Baidu: Machine Learning For Search Engines And Autonomous Cars
Baidu is a Chinese technology company that focuses on internet-related services and products. The company operates the most popular search engine in China, giving it access to the vast datasets generated by billions of search queries. On top of that, Baidu is also an app developer, runs an advertisement platform and is recognized and supported by the Chinese government for its work around developing self-driving vehicles. Its Project Apollo is one of the most mature autonomous driving programs in the world. In 2018, Baidu became the first Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company to join the Partnership on AI established by Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM to encourage ethical development of AI.1
How Does Baidu Use Artificial Intelligence?
As well as a search function, Baidu also offers image searching, maps, videos, news and translation services to its users. AI has been deployed across all of these functions to more accurately return results that users will find useful.
This is helped by the fact there are more than 800 million internet users in China – more than twice the total population of the United States,2 which means that AI algorithms have a far bigger pool of data to work with.
Baidu collectively labels all of its AI operations as Baidu Brain. The platform, currently on version 3, offers access to 110 AI technologies, including natural language processing, image recognition, facial recognition ...
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