Baidu Launches New AI Models, Staking Claim in Competitive AI Landscape
Chinese tech giant Baidu has entered the fray with the release of two new artificial intelligence (AI) models. According to the company, these models, Ernie 4.5 and Ernie X1, demonstrate prowess that surpasses those of competitors like DeepSeek and OpenAI, based on select benchmarks. The announcement intensifies the ongoing competition in the large language model (LLM) arena.
Baidu made its latest multimodal foundational model, Ernie 4.5, and its first multimodal reasoning model, Ernie X1, available on the Ernie Bot’s official website. This move is part of the company’s effort to further its position in the rapidly developing AI market.
Ernie 4.5 showcases multimodal capabilities spanning images, audio, and video. Baidu reported that Ernie 4.5’s multimodal abilities outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-4o on several benchmark platforms, including CCBench and OCRBench. Furthermore, the foundational model’s text capabilities reportedly surpassed DeepSeek V3 and nearly matched US firm OpenAI’s GPT-4.5, according to the company’s statement posted on WeChat.
Baidu was among the first Chinese Big Tech firms to launch a foundational LLM in China in March 2023. However, its initial advantage has faced challenges from other Chinese AI developers over the past two years. Baidu’s current strategy to regain prominence in China’s AI market aligns with DeepSeek’s move towards open-source models. Competing firms such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Bytedance are pushing forward, targeting both business and consumer users for their AI models.
While specific benchmark results for Ernie X1 were not disclosed, Baidu stated that the model “delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price.” This suggests a competitive approach focusing on both performance and cost-effectiveness.
Baidu has set the business access pricing for Ernie X1’s application programming interface (API) at 2 yuan (US$0.28) per million token inputs and 8 yuan per million token outputs, the company said. This indicates a clear strategy to monetize the new AI model through business applications.
Logos of Baidu and its AI chatbot Ernie. Photo: Reuters
