AI applications are a key force to promote economic development

On November 12th, at the Baidu World 2024, Robin Li, the co-founder of Baidu, delivered a keynote speech titled "Application are here". In his speech, Robin said that “Baidu isn’t aiming to launch a ‘super app’; instead, we aim to help more people and businesses create millions of ‘super useful’ apps”, reflecting the key to AI application lies in its practicality.

Robin Li, Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Baidu, speaks at Baidu World 2024

Similar to the Industrial Revolution, AI now is creating a new era of global technological innovation unprecedentedly. Regarding the AI industry, the unique advantage of the Chinese market lies in its focus on real-life use cases. Although there are lots of large language models (LLMs) available in China, users are more concerned about the product-market fit (PMF). As of early November, Baidu’s ERNIE Foundation Model has reached over 1.5 billion daily calls—a 30-fold increase from the 50 million reported last December. This surge reflects the rapid growth and demand for advanced AI applications. 

ERNIE's daily API calls reach 1.5 billion by early November 2024

In the future, AI applications will become a key force in driving the economic development to be more inclusive and high-quality, and this trend is closely aligned to the global technological development.

By / Eric Maskin （Nobel laureates in Economics ）