10 September 2015. The Chinese search giant Baidu has revealed it is to launch a virtual assistant powered by an artificial intelligence. The AI is called Du Secretary and will live within Baidu's mobile search app. According to Baidu, it can “fulfil requests for restaurants and restaurant food delivery, pet-related services like grooming, and movie theatre ticket purchases. In the near future, it will expand to include a wide range of services including ride hailing, housekeeping, manicures and pedicures, education, healthcare, travel, designated driver services, and more.” Du Secretary will be able to provide relevant responses by understanding its location, any current promotions, and the user's personal preferences based on their previous interactions with the virtual assistant. Businesses that want to take advantage of the discovery opportunity that Du Secretary offers will simply have to list their businesses on one of Baidu's services, such as Baidu Maps. Baidu is the most popular search engine in China, where it has around 60% of the search engine market share.
