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Chinese search engine Baidu has denied that it suffered a data breach following the daughter of a company executive leaking the personal information of its users.
Last week, the daughter of Baidu vice president Xie Guangjun was accused by internet users of posting their personal data following an online argument. Data included phone numbers, among other things.
However, Baidu has denied the claims, filing a police report against what it called false allegations. One claim said the vice president granted his daughter access to the database.
In an online statement, Xie apologised for the leak and said that his daughter gained the information from social networking platforms based overseas, according to Chinese media.
Baidu also said that all staff, executives or otherwise, were unable to access user data, adding that the information was sourced instead from “doxing databases” found online.
Despite Baidu denying a data breach had occurred, the share price of the company fell 4 per cent in Hong Kong trading.
Outside of the leak, Baidu made waves when it recently announced that it was embracing China’s new AI DeepSeek for its own AI models.
Previous Chinese attempts at AI models as a result have been disappointing, including Chinese search engine Baidu’s Ernie Bot, which was launched in 2023.
Baidu now says it would be implementing DeepSeek as well as its own Ernie Bot into its search function, promising “expert-level” responses and a “more diversified search experience”.
Tencent, a rival of Baidu, also plans to implement a DeepSeek R1-powered AI search function in its WeChat service.
It is also considering trialling the implementation of DeepSeek across its other offerings and is already testing its own AI reasoning model to make responses sound “more human”.
Other Chinese firms considering implementing DeepSeek include Alibaba, Huawei, Honor, Meizu, Oppo, and Vivo.
DeepSeek changed the AI industry when it announced its R1 model last month, which was able to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT despite making use of much weaker NVIDIA chipsets thanks to US export legislation that banned Chinese firms from using the industry standard.
It also managed to develop the model at a much lower price and is an open-source offering, unlike its US rival.
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