Baidu ERNIE Bot and AI search integration
Baidu launched its ERNIE large language model assistant and began integrating generated answers into Chinese search results.
What changed
Baidu unveiled ERNIE Bot on 16 March 2023 as China's first major domestic answer to ChatGPT, and subsequently began surfacing generated responses within Baidu Search. The integration followed the same pattern as Western engines, placing synthesised answers above conventional listings for many informational queries. Chinese-market SEO consequently shifted toward being cited in generated answers as well as ranking in the conventional index.
Timing
Rollout began 16 March 2023. No completion date was announced. Rankings typically remain unstable for the whole rollout window, so measurements taken inside it are not a reliable read on the outcome.