(Yicai Global) Feb. 7 -- Shares of 360 Security Technology soared by the exchange-imposed daily limit after the Chinese internet security firm revealed plans to launch a ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence chatbot, following a similar move by search engine giant Baidu.

360 Security [SHA: 601360] surged 10 percent to CNY8.02 (USD1.18) by the close of trading today. The stock has risen 22.6 percent so far this year.

The Beijing-based company plans to launch a demo product similar to ChatGPT as soon as possible, it said on an investor interaction platform today. The firm’s AI research institute has been investing in AI Generated Content technology, it said, but it is currently for internal use only and there remains a big gap with the technology level of ChatGPT 3.

US AI startup OpenAI launched ChatGPT 3 in November. It has become a hit thanks to its very human-like chat and content generating capabilities, with more than 10 million daily active users at present.

360 Search is the second-largest search engine in China, behind Baidu. The company has abundant data sources to train the AIGC technology and enough financial resources to buy large-scale computing power. It may also seek partners to help speed up development and narrow the technological gap, the firm said.

Baidu said today that it expects to launch its own ChatGPT-like AI chatbot named Ernie Bot next month. That boosted the firm’s Hong Kong-listed shares by more than 15 percent to almost a 12-month high.

Editor: Tom Litting