Outlook Business Desk
Chinese tech giant Baidu unveiled a new AI reasoning model on Sunday and announced that its AI chatbot services are now free, amid intense industry competition.
Baidu claims that Ernie X1 matches DeepSeek R1's performance at half the cost. The company emphasizes X1's advanced capabilities in understanding, planning, reflection, and evolution, describing it as the first deep-thinking model capable of autonomously using tools.
Baidu stated that its latest foundation model, Ernie 4.5, has exceptional multimodal understanding, enhanced language capabilities, and significant improvements in comprehension, generation, logic, and memory.
Baidu has integrated DeepSeek's R1 reasoning model into its search engine. Meanwhile, WeChat owner Tencent launched a new AI model, claiming it responds to queries faster than DeepSeek, even as it incorporates its competitor's technology into its messaging platform.
Baidu is facing intense competition in the consumer AI market, particularly after the startup DeepSeek disrupted the industry both locally and globally.
Beijing-based Baidu was among the first in China to launch a public generative AI platform in 2023. However, competing chatbots from companies like TikTok owner ByteDance and Moonshot AI have since attracted more users.
Alibaba, in collaboration with Apple to develop AI for iPhones in China, has announced a $52 billion investment in AI over the next three years.
Since startup DeepSeek stunned competitors in January with its open-source and cost-efficient model, Chinese tech companies have been racing to launch enhanced AI platforms.