Baidu turns to AI to police online content

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a vital tool for internet companies in China to ensure they stay on the right side of censors, following a government crackdown on online content. Baidu, operator of China's largest online search engine, has stepped up efforts to ensure search results and other content, including news or video, that it sends to users are "clean" and "decent", using the same cutting-edge technology for its ventures in autonomous driving and conversational devices. The company has used AI to identify and remove click bait and vulgar content, said chief executive Robin Li Yanhong in a conference call with analysts on Friday. "We proactively clean up indecent content and limit the volume of entertainment gossip in our news feed," Li said after the Beijing-based company posted better-than-expected revenue in the first quarter on the back of its strong advertising business. Nasdaq-listed Baidu forecast its second-quarter revenue above analysts' estimates, as advertisers continue to flock to its news aggregation service and Netflix-like video streaming service. "Upholding such product values may mean putting in greater effort to grow our users and revenue.