Connect with us

Technology

Baidu Unveils iRAG and No-Code Tool Miaoda to Drive AI Application Boom

Published

on

–       The new iRAG technology mitigates hallucinations in image generation, boosting the applicability of AI-generated images.
–       Miaoda is a no-code tool that enables users to build applications using simple natural language.
–       ERNIE now handles 1.5 billion daily API calls, marking an exceptional 30-fold growth over the previous year.

SHANGHAI, Nov. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU and HKEX: 9888), a leading AI company with strong Internet foundation, today hosted its annual flagship technology conference Baidu World 2024 in Shanghai. At the event, the company announced a range of new AI technologies and solutions to accelerate the boom of AI applications, featuring iRAG (Image-Based Retrieval-Augmented Generation), a new technology designed to tackle hallucinations in image generation, and Miaoda, a no-code tool that empowers businesses and individuals to create applications.

The launch comes amid surging demand for Baidu’s AI offerings, as evidenced by the ERNIE foundation model’s daily API calls reaching 1.5 billion by early November. This represents a substantial 30-fold increase from the 50 million announced a year ago.

“The growth rate exceeded my expectations,” said Robin Li, Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Baidu, who described the steep increase as a reflection of the explosive growth in generative AI applications in China over the past two years.

Looking ahead, Li emphasized that agents will serve as the predominant form of AI applications and are approaching a tipping point of explosive growth. Underscoring this point, Li introduced the Top 100 Agents and Top 100 Industry Applications on the ERNIE AgentBuilder platform.

Baidu World 2024 also highlighted the latest user growth for ERNIE Bot, ERNIE’s expanding role in enterprise applications, and featured the debut of Xiaodu AI Glasses by Xiaodu Technology.

New iRAG Technology to Mitigate Hallucinations in Image Generation

Hallucinations, a phenomenon in which AI generates false or misleading information, have remained one of the most intractable barriers to the widespread adoption of generative AI. In text generation, RAG technology has largely resolved the problem of hallucinations, greatly enhancing the accuracy of generated answers. However, in the field of multimodality, hallucinations remain a key obstacle, often manifesting as inaccurate depictions of people or landmarks.

Baidu’s newly launched iRAG technology can mitigate hallucinations in text-to-image generation. Leveraging Baidu Search’s vast collection of hundreds of millions of images and the company’s strong foundation model capabilities, the new technology enables text-to-image models to deliver hyper-realistic visuals while also significantly reducing the cost of image production. The ability of the iRAG to reduce hallucinations boosts the applicability of images generated by text-to-image models across visual mediums, including comics, storyboards, posters, among others. Li described the reduction of hallucinations as laying the groundwork for the coming boom in AI applications.

Miaoda: Building Applications with Natural Language

Baidu also unveiled Miaoda, a no-code tool that makes it possible to build entire applications simply by describing them in natural language. Miaoda provides no-code programming, multi-agent collaboration, and multi-tool invocation. No-code programming allows anyone to generate code without writing a single line, lowering barriers to AI development and making it accessible to all. Its multi-agent collaboration leverages ERNIE’s thinking and planning capabilities to coordinate and manage different agents effectively, while its multi-tool invocation taps into ERNIE’s tool invocation abilities, extensively utilizing web search, iRAG, maps API, and other tools for a seamless workflow.

“Baidu isn’t aiming to launch a ‘super app’; instead, we aim to help more people and businesses create millions of ‘super useful’ applications,” Li said.

Mirroring the real-world product development process, Miaoda draws on the abilities of different agents across multiple domains such as project management and planning, content editing, programming and quality control. Miaoda can even automatically identify bugs and use a range of tools. Li called it “the most complex application case of multi-agent collaboration to date”.

Miaoda empowers everyone with the capabilities of a programmer – anyone who can speak, can create applications, greatly enhancing human productivity.

Agents as the Next Frontier in AI Application 

“Today, while all leading global tech firms are paying attention to agents, few have made them as central to their strategy as Baidu has,” Li said at the event. He likened the potential of agents to websites in the PC era and social media accounts in the mobile age.

“Agents are more human-like, more intelligent, and act like your sales, customer service representatives, or assistants. Agents will become a new vehicle for content, information and services,” Li added.

Four types of agents – company, character, tool, and industry – were highlighted at the event to demonstrate the potential of agents in the AI era. Company agents, for example, differ from traditional websites that only show static company and product information, and can instead proactively recommend products based on customer needs and respond promptly to service requests, greatly improving the efficiency of interactive marketing. After deploying an agent powered by ERNIE, automaker BYD saw a 119% increase in lead conversion.

Li also offered the example of the tool agent Free Canvas, developed in collaboration between Baidu Wenku and Baidu Drive. It allows users to drag and drop documents, audio, video, and other materials onto a canvas-like interface to quickly generate multimodal content. Similarly, the industry agent Faxingbao was specifically developed for the legal field. It has answered over 16.6 million legal questions and can also calculate compensation, draft legal documents, and recommend suitable lawyers.

To date, Baidu’s ERNIE AgentBuilder has garnered the interest of 150,000 businesses and 800,000 developers. The top 100 agents encompass character-based agents like the “Farmer Academician”, as well as agents for tools, industries, workplace, emotions, and entertainment.

Expanding ERNIE’s Reach with Growing Developer Community, Enterprise Applications and AI Glasses

Haifeng Wang, Chief Technology Officer of Baidu, announced that ERNIE Bot has amassed 430 million users, while the PaddlePaddle deep learning platform and ERNIE have a total of 18.08 million developers. Wang also mentioned that the ERNIE foundation model is still in training, with an even more powerful version worth looking forward to.

Dou Shen, Executive Vice President of Baidu and President of Baidu AI Cloud Group, highlighted that the Qianfan platform has helped customers fine-tune 33,000 models, and develop 770,000 enterprise applications. Shen noted that the explosion in new AI applications has begun on the enterprise front, supported by a new AI infrastructure comprising an enterprise-level foundation model engineering platform and a heterogeneous computing platform, poised to replace traditional cloud computing.

Ying Li, CEO of Xiaodu Technology, introduced Xiaodu AI Glasses, the first native AI glasses powered by a Chinese language foundation model. Powered by ERNIE and equipped with visual, audio, and location-based capabilities, these smart glasses serve as a versatile AI assistant across everyday scenarios. They function as a personal tour guide, offer information via Baidu Maps and Search, and excel in instant translation and content summarization from photos. Ideal for both academics and casual readers, they also assist with intelligent note-taking and can personalize music to enhance the user’s surroundings. Li revealed that Xiaodu AI Glasses will be available for sale in the first half of 2025.

About Baidu

Founded in 2000, Baidu’s mission is to make the complicated world simpler through technology. Baidu is a leading AI company with strong internet foundation, trading on the NASDAQ under “BIDU” and HKEX under “9888.” One Baidu ADS represents eight Class A ordinary shares.

Media Contact
intlcomm@baidu.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/baidu-unveils-irag-and-no-code-tool-miaoda-to-drive-ai-application-boom-302303079.html

SOURCE Baidu, Inc.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

The total mileage of UAV transmission line inspection of State Grid Turfan Power Supply Company exceeded 50,000 kilometers

Published

on

By

TURFAN, China, Nov. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — On November 22, the transmission and operation inspection center of State Grid Turfan Power Supply Company successfully completed the line inspection task of the 110 thousand volt Jiaolang line, marking the company’s 389th unmanned aerial vehicle inspection task in the year. Since 2016, the State Grid Turfan Power Supply Company has actively applied and promoted UAV inspection technology, and has achieved full coverage of UAV transmission line inspection in complex terrain such as mountains, deserts, and Gobi.

The complex and diverse terrain of Turfan, including high mountains, deserts and Gobi, has brought arduous challenges to the inspection of transmission lines. However, through the application of drone technology, the State Grid Turfan Power Supply Company has not only overcome these difficulties, but also achieved remarkable results in the operation and inspection of transmission lines. At the same time, with the intelligent upgrading and digital transformation of power grid equipment and management, UAV technology is widely used in maintenance and hanging, live monitoring, power grid construction and other fields, and the intelligent level of transmission line operation and inspection has been continuously improved. Up to now, the company’s drone inspection has covered 215 transmission lines of 35 thousand volts and above, with a total mileage of more than 50,000 kilometers, which is equivalent to the length of a week around the Earth’s equator.

In the next step, the State Grid Turfan Power Supply Company will continue to expand the application scenarios of UAVs, actively introduce new technologies and equipment, and accelerate the transformation of intelligent operation and inspection mode. The company plans to continuously improve the level of equipment operation and inspection, consolidate the foundation of equipment safety, and ensure the safe and stable operation of the power grid by further optimizing the drone inspection process and improving the data analysis and processing capabilities.

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/the-total-mileage-of-uav-transmission-line-inspection-of-state-grid-turfan-power-supply-company-exceeded-50-000-kilometers-302316063.html

SOURCE State Grid Turfan Power Supply Company

Continue Reading

Technology

MiniTool’s Biggest Discount of the Year During Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Published

on

By

VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — MiniTool, a committed software development firm, offers MiniTool Partition Wizard, MiniTool Power Data Recovery, MiniTool ShadowMaker, MiniTool MovieMaker, MiniTool Video Converter, and other products in the 2024 Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. From November 25 to December 6, 2024, customers can visit the MiniTool promotion page to purchase products and enjoy big discounts.

Promotions and Activities

Entrance 1: Discounts for MiniTool Partition Wizard, MiniTool Power Data Recovery, and MiniTool ShadowMaker (UP TO 65% OFF)Entrance 2: Discounts for MiniTool MovieMaker and MiniTool Video Converter (UP TO 70% OFF)

MiniTool’s promotion is divided into three forms: lucky draw, combination promotion, and single item promotion.

Lucky Draw: Try your luck to get a discount or coupon for your desired single product. Each user has 5 chances per day during Black Friday sales.Combination Promotion: Or you can directly pick up your favorite bundles with a bigger discount!Single Item Promotion: Enjoy exclusive discounts on individual products!

Best Seller: MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate + MiniTool ShadowMaker Pro Ultimate
MiniTool Partition Wizard is a top disk manager with comprehensive partition management features that can meet the basic disk and partition management needs of home and business users. It is available in Pro, Pro Platinum, and Pro Ultimate versions. Of these, the Pro Ultimate version is the best choice.

MiniTool ShadowMaker is a professional backup software based on the Windows system. It can safely back up files, folders, systems, disks, and partitions to internal or external hard drives.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate and MiniTool ShadowMaker Pro Ultimate are originally priced at $199 and $158, respectively. During MiniTool’s Black Friday promotion, customers can buy these two products for ONLY $160.65 (55% OFF).

Double Protection of Data: MiniTool Power Data Recovery Personal Ultimate + MiniTool ShadowMaker Pro Ultimate
MiniTool Power Data Recovery is the best data recovery software for Windows users. It can successfully recover accidentally deleted files as well as files lost due to system crashes or virus attacks. Windows users can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to recover data from internal storage, as well as external drives (such as HDD, SSD, USB, SD card, etc.).

MiniTool ShadowMaker can set up backup items regularly to properly protect your data and computer. It is the best choice for Windows users to back up files, hard drives, systems, etc.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Personal Ultimate and MiniTool ShadowMaker Pro Ultimate charge $129 and $158 respectively. Now with a discount of 60% OFF, you ONLY NEED to PAY $114.80 for them.

65% OFF: MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Platinum + MiniTool Power Data Recovery Personal Annual Subscription + MiniTool ShadowMaker Pro Annual Subscription
MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Platinum offers all the features of the software, plus one year of free upgrades. It can be used on three devices after purchase. MiniTool Power Data Recovery Personal Annual Subscription offers all the functions of MiniTool data recovery software and a one-year free upgrade. MiniTool ShadowMaker Pro Annual Subscription allows use on two devices, plus one year of free updates.

The original prices of these three products are $129, $89, and $120 respectively. During the Black Friday promotion, you can get them all with ONLY $118.30 (65% OFF).

70% OFF: MiniTool MovieMaker Annual Subscription + MiniTool Video Converter 12-Month Subscription
MiniTool MovieMaker is the best choice for creating and editing videos. It supports adding transitions, special effects, and text to a video. Even beginners can make stunning videos with templates in MiniTool MovieMaker.

MiniTool Video Converter can convert audio and video into more than 1,000 formats. Its batch conversion function makes conversion more efficient. In addition, MiniTool Video Converter allows the recording of partial or full-screen activities without background noise.

The regular price of MiniTool MovieMaker Annual Subscription is $59.99, and the regular price of MiniTool Video Converter 12-Month Subscription is $119.99. During Black Friday, enjoy both of them for a whole year for ONLY $53.99, SAVING 70%!

For more product details, please visit the two promotion pages mentioned above.

About MiniTool® Software Ltd.
MiniTool® Software Ltd. is a software development company based in Canada. It is committed to providing customers with the most useful applications, such as MiniTool Power Data Recovery, MiniTool Partition Wizard, MiniTool ShadowMaker, MiniTool System Booster, MiniTool MovieMaker, and MiniTool Video Converter.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/minitools-biggest-discount-of-the-year-during-black-friday-and-cyber-monday-302316069.html

SOURCE MiniTool Software Limited

Continue Reading

Technology

Al Marwan Real Estate to Boost Residential Experience with Yardi

Published

on

By

Sharjah-based property management and development company to reshape residential communities and unify real estate processes with intuitive cloud technology

DUBAI, UAE, Nov. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Al Marwan Real Estate, the development and operations arm of Al Marwan Group, is set to centralise management operations and elevate residents’ experience with Yardi®. With one of the largest residential portfolios of corporate real estate and investment assets, Al Marwan is responsible for the development, procurement, leasing and operations of residential projects across the emirate of Sharjah.

The Yardi Residential Suite, including RentCafe, will allow Al Marwan to effectively manage and unify its property operations – from unit marketing and resident onboarding to accounting, billing and reporting. Yardi’s resident portal and app will further help residents to self-serve, manage details, log maintenance requests and view invoices. It will also aid in centralising communication with management teams, ensuring tenant requests and concerns are resolved efficiently.

“We are excited to embrace Yardi’s intuitive property management solution, elevate our operational efficiencies, and deliver unmatched services to our clients,” shared Majd Al Zaiem, Director of Al Marwan Real Estate. “With Yardi as our single real estate management platform, we can streamline tenant leases online and process them with record efficiency, enhance sustainability efforts by eliminating paper transactions and strengthen communication channels across our business.”

“The Yardi platform equips Al Marwan with a seamless solution, empowering the company to optimise its business strategy while effortlessly planning for future growth,” said Said Haider, senior director for Yardi. “We are excited to work with Al Marwan Real Estate in the UAE and look forward to helping them further digitise their operations across the region.”

See how Yardi can improve your resident’s experience with an end-to-end cloud solution.

About Al Marwan Group

Since its inception in 1978, Al Marwan Group has been offering unparalleled services to the construction, heavy equipment, investment, hospitality and real estate sectors. As a key player in the construction, machinery and real estate industries with an expertise spanning 5 decades. For more information, visit almarwangroup.com.

About Yardi

Yardi® develops and supports industry-leading investment and property management software for all types and sizes of real estate companies. With over 9,500 employees, Yardi is working with clients globally to drive significant innovation in the real estate industry. For more information on how Yardi is Energised for Tomorrow, visit yardi.ae.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2566901/Yardi.jpg
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2447766/5046796/Yardi_Logo.jpg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/al-marwan-real-estate-to-boost-residential-experience-with-yardi-302315618.html

Continue Reading

Trending