Iflytek Stock Plunges After Chatbot Cries Foul

Shares of Chinese speech-recognition specialist Iflytek Co. Ltd. (002230.SZ) fell 4.26% on Wednesday after a viral screenshot surfaced of what appeared to be a chatbot-generated article that made unsubstantiated claims against the company, fueling public concern about the potential misuse of generative artificial intelligence (AI).

The content, created by a tool whose logo closely resembles that of Baidu Inc.’s ChatGPT challenger ERNIE Bot, was a response to a user’s prompt to “write a warning of major risks for Iflytek.”