Baidu just denied any link between its generative AI service ERNIE Bot and a Chinese military AI!
SCMP: Baidu ERNIE Bot Linked to Chinese Military!
On January 12, 2024, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that a research laboratory under the cyber warfare division of the Strategic Support Force of the People's Liberation Army “forged a physical bond”between its artificial intelligence system and large language models in China, specifically Baidu ERNIE Bot and iFLYTEK Spark.
According to SCMP, the project was detailed in a peer-reviewed article published in the December 2023 issue of the Chinese academic journal. Command control and simulation. It also reported that it is the first time that the Chinese military has publicly confirmed its use of large language business models.
According to scientists involved in the project, a research laboratory of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Strategic Support Force, which oversees space, cyber, intelligence and electronic warfare for the Chinese military, has forged a physical link between its artificial intelligence system and Baidu's Ernie and Baidu. iFlyTek's Spark, which are large language models similar to ChatGPT.
Military AI can convert large amounts of sensor data and information provided by frontline units into descriptive language or images and transmit them to business models. After they confirm they understand, the military AI automatically generates prompts for deeper sharing in various tasks, such as combat simulations. The entire process is completely free of human involvement.
The paper by Sun Yifeng and his team at the PLA Information Engineering University discusses how they fed military AI data about the US military intervention in Libya in 2011 to large language models such as the Baidu ERNIE Bot, and after several rounds of dialogue, they were able to predict the combat strategy of the US army.
In the article, Sun's team analyzed one of their experiments that simulated a US military invasion of Libya in 2011. The military AI provided information about the weapons and deployment of both armies to the large language models. After several rounds of dialogue, the models successfully predicted the US military's next move.
After that story was published, Baidu shares fell more than 11.5%, amid fears that such a direct link to the Chinese military would result in US sanctions, not unlike what happened to it. to HUAWEI.
Recommended : Were Chinese missiles really filled with water?
Baidu denies ERNIE bot's link to Chinese military research!
Initially, Baidu only stated that it had no knowledge of the research project:
We are not aware of the research project and, if our large language model had been used, it would have been the version that is publicly available online.
However, after its share price fell, Baidu issued a stronger denial about January 15, 2024.
Baidu stated that it had no “commercial collaboration” with Sun Yifeng's team or the PLA Information Engineering University, and stated that if ERNIE Bot had been used in that research, it would have been the publicly available version.
ERNIE Bot is available and used by the general public.
The academic paper, published by academics at a Chinese university, describes how the authors created prompts and received responses from LLMs, using features available to any user interacting with generative AI tools.
Baidu has not engaged in any commercial collaboration or provided any personalized services to the authors of the academic article or any institution with which they are affiliated.
Baidu also stated that SCMP has since “clarified and corrected” its report.
The South China Morning Post, the first media outlet to report on this academic article, clarified and corrected its original report.
SCMP removed its reference to a physical link between Ernie Bot and any Chinese military AI system, amending it to say that the PLA lab tested its AI system on Baidu Ernie and iFLYTEK Spark.
Please support my work!
Support my work via bank transfer/PayPal/credit card!
Name: Adrian Wong
Wire transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift code: CIBBMYKL)
Credit card/Paypal: https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about technology and science since 1997, and even published a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking the BIOS barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while I was in medical school.
He continues to spend countless hours every day writing about technology, medicine, and science, in his search for facts in a post-truth world.
(/your_note)
Recommended reading
Return to > Business | Computer | technical ARP
ARP technical support!
Please support us for visiting our sponsorsparticipating in the ARP Technical Forumseither donating to our fund. Thank you!
Leave feedback about this