Baidu (BIDU) Faces Headwinds in AI Search Monetization, Downgraded to ‘Neutral’ - InvestingChannel

Baidu (BIDU) Faces Headwinds in AI Search Monetization, Downgraded to ‘Neutral’

We recently published a list of 15 AI News That Broke The Internet. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) stands against other AI stocks.

OpenAI has been making headlines in the artificial intelligence realm ever since its existence, and it seems the company has something new to share almost every day. However, not all the news surrounding the company is positive. In the latest news shared by The Washington Post, OpenAI has suspended access to its latest, highly anticipated video generation tool, Sora. This suspension followed a small group of artists who had leaked access to the tool to protest the treatment they’ve been receiving at the company.

READ ALSO: 15 AI Stocks to Watch: News and Analyst Ratings and 9 Buzzing AI Stocks to Watch on Latest News.

Arguing that the company used them as “PR Puppets” without pay, the artists created a webpage allowing anyone to make AI videos using Sora. OpenAI granted hundreds of artists free access to the video generation tool so that they could test out the new artificial intelligence video generator. However, 20 of these artists argued that the company had taken advantage of their unpaid labor. This is what the group of artists wrote on Hugging Face, an open-source repository for artificial intelligence projects.

“Hundreds of artists provide unpaid labor through bug testing, feedback and experimental work for the program for a $150B valued company”.

The artists further added that the opportunities offered in return for helping the company, such as being selected to have their Sora-created films screened, offer “minimal compensation which pales in comparison to the substantial PR and marketing value OpenAI receives. The tool was public three hours before it was shut down. OpenAI spokesperson Niko Felix said that the company has temporarily shut down user access to Sora while it looks into the situation.

“Hundreds of artists in our alpha have shaped Sora’s development, helping prioritize new features and safeguards. Participation is voluntary, with no obligation to provide feedback or use the tool.”

-Felix wrote in a statement from OpenAI.

In other news, Axios reported that President-elect Donald Trump is considering naming an “AI czar” in the White House that will be coordinating federal policy and governmental use of artificial intelligence. While Elon Musk isn’t going to be the AI czar, he is expected to be involved.

For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

A modern internet space with a person using Baidu services on a laptop.

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 54

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), a Chinese internet giant and AI pioneer, was downgraded by Susquehanna International Group on Monday, November 25th. Analyst Shyam Patil downgraded the stock to “Neutral” from Positive and also cut his price target to $85 from $105. According to Patil, macro-related pressures and AI search monetization headwinds” are expected to weigh on Baidu’s revenue. As such, Baidu’s challenge lies in making its AI efforts profitable. The analyst noted that queries that its search engine answers using generative AI are currently monetizing at a lower rate than traditional search because they don’t always direct users to ads.

Overall, BIDU ranks 9th on our list of AI news that broke the internet. While we acknowledge the potential of BIDU as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BIDU but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

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