China’s Baidu, betting on AI, posts fifth straight quarterly revenue drop

Baidu posted a fifth straight drop in quarterly revenue on Tuesday as the Chinese tech giant expressed confidence in its transition to artificial intelligence services to drive long-term growth.

The Beijing-based search engine provider, sometimes called China’s Google, has for years heralded the potential of AI in the country.

Baidu pushed aggressively into AI by recruiting prominent researchers and with the release of its “Ernie” tool — one of China’s first AI chatbots.