(Yicai Global) July 16 -- Baidu's artificial intelligence technology has helped reunite more than 6,700 missing people with their families over the past three years, according to its latest corporate social responsibility report.

Users can access a mini program in the Baidu app and upload a photo to compare with tens of thousands of missing people's photos on the Ministry of Civil Affairs' website, the firm said in the second-quarter report published yesterday. The system, which has received more than 200,000 photo uploads since 2016, cross-checks images to find similarities between the uploaded image and the ministry's gallery.

The Beijing-based tech giant has also helped improve the lives of the disabled and combat domestic violence, it claims, saying it has set up a research team to create an AI-powered program to translate fingerspelling for hearing-impaired children.

More benefits of its AI tech include cracking down on clinics illegally using the names of public hospitals to foster patient trust, creating content for its Wikipedia-like Baidu Baike medical encyclopedia, safeguarding children in schools, protecting endangered languages and digitizing massage shops, according to the report.

The firm also sought to help users quit smoking by using its own PaddlePaddle technology to better understand human behavior and guide smokers toward giving up the habit.

Baidu will continue to disclose how its technologies and partnerships with public organizations are helping society, it added.

Editor: James Boynton