BEIJING, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese artificial intelligence giant Baidu partnered with smart home appliance maker zaijia.com to roll out an AI-based home assistant robot on Friday.

Equipped with Baidu's AI operating system DuerOS, the home assistant robot can speak with users and answer their questions with high-level accuracy while offering security monitoring and entertainment services through a camera, a display and a sound box.

The new companion robot can be controlled by smartphone and help busy people look after the elderly and children by communicating with them in real-time and entertaining them with on-demand songs and stories.

Baidu has been investing heavily in AI technology and applications. It acquired the smart home startup Raven Tech in February and decided last week to share its autonomous driving platform with its partners to help upgrade the sector.

The Nasdaq-listed firm disclosed its first quarter financial performance on Friday, raking in total revenues of 16.891 billion yuan (about 2.454 billion U.S. dollars), up 6.8 percent year on year.

"We are pleased to report solid performance in the first quarter, as we focused on our core business and AI-enabled new business initiatives including our AI-cloud, financial services, DuerOS, and autonomous driving, all of which hold tremendous long-term potential," said Lu Qi, Baidu's Vice Chairman, Group President and Chief Operating Officer.

Baidu set up the DuerOS Division in February and has established partnerships with smart device producers such as Zaijia.com, Haier, Midea and Lenovo. It released the DuerOS smart chip last month to offer one-stop intelligent voice interaction solutions.

"In the quarters ahead, we will intensify our efforts in applying AI to improve existing products and to accelerate the development of AI-enabled new business initiatives," Lu added.