BEIJING More than 70 large artificial intelligence language models with over 1 billion parameters have been released in China, Baidu Inc CEO Robin Li told an industry event in Beijing on Tuesday.

Baidu joins several other Chinese companies that launched AI chatbots last week after securing regulatory approval for mass market releases. These include facial recognition firm SenseTime and AI startups Baichuan Intelligent Technology, Zhipu AI, and MiniMax.

Li said the latest version of Baidu's AI chatbot, Ernie 3.5, has processing speed twice that of the previous version with 50% improved efficiency. Li also revealed that Baidu will launch a new version in the near future.

(Reporting by Yelin Mo and Brenda Goh; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)