Baidu and Xiaomi are working together on internet of things and artificial intelligence

Baidu, China's answer to Google, and Xiaomi, which has modeled itself on the success of the America's most successful technology manufacturer in Apple, have announced a strategic partnership to tackle two emerging technologies, internet of things and artificial intelligence. Announced today at Xiaomi's first developer conference in Beijing, the alliance is a marriage between the third most valuable publicly traded Chinese technology company in Baidu and one of the world's most valuable private firms, Xiaomi. Clocking in with a market capitalization of $86 billion, Baidu is no slouch on the global technology stage -- with AI and deep learning among its core focuses -- while Xiaomi has become a key player in China and made inroads in emerging markets like India thanks to its affordable phones and smart devices which punch well above their price tag. The duo are announcing a collaboration for the first time, but TechCrunch understands that Baidu's conversational operating system -- DuerOS -- is already present in some Xiaomi hardware. That's little known because it was left unbranded, but now the companies have made their partnership official.