Chinese search engine giant Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) has started showing its innovation capabilities. The company has unveiled the world’s first multilingual translation robot. Baidu’s robot can speak multiple languages, conduct interviews, and do translation work with utmost precision, reports China News Service. The Beijing-based company showcased it at the 10th annual meeting of China’s electronic and information technology industry.

AI experts praise Baidu’s robot

Named ‘Xiaodu,’ the robot helped the host interview international guests. Attendees at the event were surprised by its fast, accurate and fluent translation. Baidu combined its speech recognition and translation technology to give Xiaodu exceptional multilingual translation skills. The search engine company developed the robot in collaboration with Zhejiang University, Tsinghua University, and Harbin Institute of Technology.

 

Experts in the fields of artificial intelligence and computer translation praised the robot for its translation models and technology. Baidu said it will apply the technology in Xiaodu to “Baidu translation” and more than 7,000 third-party applications. Last month, Baidu CEO Robin Li said the company would launch a self-driving car by the end of this year.

 

The company has teamed up with automakers to develop an automated driving car in an attempt to challenge Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL). The U.S. search engine company plans to bring its autonomous car to the market in the next five years. Baidu says marrying traditional automobile expertise with cutting-edge technology can revolutionize the automobile industry.

 

Baidu invests in Keru Cloud

In a separate story, a group of investors led by Baidu has invested $11 million in restaurant management SaaS startup Keru Cloud. The startup aims to become an all-in-one solution for restaurants and other businesses that are going digital. It currently has about 3,000 restaurants as clients, and plans to increase that figure to 20,000 by the end of this year.

 

Baidu told Tech in Asia that Keru Cloud “fits well” with the company’s strategy of connecting people with services. Restaurants can use Keru’s app to take orders, input reservations, run customer loyalty programs, and add parties to the queue.

 

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