Baidu, China’s leading internet search giant, announced on Sunday the launch of two new artificial intelligence models, including one designed for advanced reasoning. In a strategic move to stay ahead in the competitive AI landscape, the company also made its AI chatbot services free of charge.
Chinese tech firms have been in a race to enhance AI platforms, especially after the start-up DeepSeek shook the industry in January with its open-source and cost-effective model. In a WeChat post, Baidu introduced its latest X1 reasoning model, which it claims rivals DeepSeek’s capabilities but at a lower cost. The company also unveiled ERNIE 4.5, a new foundation model.
Both models are now available through Baidu’s AI chatbot, Ernie Bot, and have been released ahead of schedule. Previously, users had to pay a monthly subscription to access Baidu’s most advanced AI models.
Despite being one of the first Chinese companies to launch a generative AI platform in 2023, Baidu struggled to gain widespread traction. Competitors such as ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, and Moonshot AI have since attracted more users with their chatbot services.
Baidu’s new AI models come with multimodal capabilities, allowing them to process and integrate various data types—including text, video, images, and audio—and seamlessly convert content across these formats.
