Chinese search engine giant Baidu has filed lawsuits against Apple over fake copies of its Ernie bot app available on Apple's app store. The company's artificial intelligence powered Ernie bot, launched last month, has been regarded as China's closest answer to the U.S.-developed chatbot ChatGPT. Baidu said it had lodged lawsuits in Beijing Haidian People's Court against the developers behind the counterfeit applications of its Ernie bot, including Apple company. "At present, Ernie does not have any official app," Baidu said in a statement late last Friday posted on its official "Baidu AI" WeChat account. "Until our company's official announcement, any Ernie app you see from App Store or other stores are fake," it said.