Baidu Unveils ‘Ernie X1’ to Overthrow Deepseek As The “Low-Cost AI” Champion
Baidu has entered the market and has introduced its own AI Chatbot called Ernie X1 is built to perform well in logical thinking, intricate computations, and dialogue activities.
The AI race has evolved into a geopolitical conflict between global powers rather than simply a contest between tech businesses. China has produced competitive AI models at a significantly lower cost than its American equivalents thanks to businesses like DeepSeek and Alibaba.
Baidu has entered the market and has introduced its own AI Chatbot called Ernie X1
Baidu has entered the market and has introduced its own AI Chatbot called Ernie X1 is built to perform well in logical thinking, intricate computations, and dialogue activities. Early testing indicates that it can compete with GPT-4.5 on a number of benchmarks and match or even outperform DeepSeek R1, while Baidu claims that its operating expenses are under 1% of GPT-4.5’s.
Ernie 4.5 is a multimodal model that combines voice, video, images, and text
Furthermore, Baidu has revealed Ernie 4.5, a multimodal model that combines voice, video, images, and text. This new generation reduces errors and hallucinations, which are major problems in generative models, while simultaneously improving logical thinking, language understanding, and content production.
Furthermore, more than two weeks before the original planned release date, Baidu announced that their AI chatbot, Ernie Bot, which is driven by its proprietary Ernie models, would be freely accessible to individual users. Previously, in order to access Baidu’s most recent AI models, Ernie Bot needed a paid subscription.
CEO Robin Li Yanhong announced last month
In a complete reversal from his long-standing support for closed-source AI development, Baidu founder, chairman, and CEO Robin Li Yanhong announced last month that Ernie 4.5 would be open source starting on June 30.
“One thing we learned from DeepSeek is that open sourcing the best models can greatly help adoption,” Li said in an earnings call with analysts in February. “When the model is open source, people naturally want to try it out of curiosity, which helps drive broader adoption.”
Conclusion
Baidu’s innovative models and dedication to open-source solutions demonstrate the company’s determination to be at the forefront of the AI industry, especially in the face of growing competitors like Tencent, Alibaba, and DeepSeek. Businesses like Baidu are in a position to significantly influence the direction of AI in China and internationally as long as the Chinese government keeps making AI development a top priority.