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China’s Baidu Sues Apple & App Makers

By  |  April 10, 2023

Baidu has taken legal action against both Apple and certain app developers due to the distribution of counterfeit versions of their Ernie bot app on Apple’s app store.

The Ernie bot, powered by artificial intelligence, was recently introduced by the company and has been compared to the US-developed chatbot ChatGPT as China’s closest equivalent.

Baidu has filed lawsuits in the Beijing Haidian People’s Court against the individuals responsible for creating counterfeit versions of its Ernie bot, as well as against Apple Inc.

Read more: China: Apple yanked 25,000 apps from its China App Store

“At present, Ernie does not have any official app,” Baidu said in a statement late on Friday posted on its official “Baidu AI” WeChat account.

It also posted a photograph of its court filing.

“Until our company’s official announcement, any Ernie app you see from App Store or other stores are fake,” it said.