Baidu Inc. released a new artificial intelligence model that articulates its reasoning, in an apparent bid to regain momentum against up-and-coming rivals like DeepSeek.The Ernie X1 model by China’s internet search leader works similarly to DeepSeek R1 — which shocked Silicon Valley by offering comparable performance to the world’s best chatbots at a fraction of their development cost.

BEIJING: China's Baidu said on Sunday (Mar 16) it has launched two new artificial intelligence (AI) models, including a new reasoning-focused model that it said rivalled DeepSeek's model, as it vies to stand out in a fiercely competitive AI race.

Baidu was among the first Chinese tech giants to roll out generative AI to the public in 2023,. But startups like DeepSeek have shaken up the industry with open-source models that are highly efficient and cost-effective.

Chinese internet search giant Baidu released a new artificial intelligence reasoning model Sunday and made its AI chatbot services free to consumers as ferocious competition grips the

Baidu also confirmed its plans to follow in DeepSeek’s footsteps by making its Ernie AI models open-source, starting on June 30.

Baidu introduced Ernie X1, a reasoning model that can support tools such as advanced search, generation of AI images, and webpage reading.

Chinese tech company Baidu said on Sunday it has launched two new artificial intelligence (AI) models, which are said to offer the same performance as the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek but at half the cost.

Baidu first debuted its Ernie series of models in 2023, before unveiling a “ significant upgrade ” the following year with the launch of Ernie 4.0 Turbo. Now, it’s lifting the lid on Ernie X1, which it says delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at just half the price of its rival.

Tech giant says reasoning model Ernie X1 ‘delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price’.