China's Baidu said it has launched two new artificial intelligence 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.
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's roll-out of AI models which it says is on par with, or even better than, industry-leading models in the United States at a fraction of the cost, has roiled the industry and re-energised the global AI race.
"ERNIE X1 delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price," Baidu said of one of the new models.
The X1 has "stronger understanding, planning, reflection, and evolution capabilities," Baidu said on Sunday, adding that it is the first deep thinking model that uses tools autonomously.
The small Chinese start-up is making waves in the tech world with its cheaper model that challenges the dominance of Silicon Valley giants.
Baidu said its latest foundation model ERNIE 4.5 has "excellent multimodal understanding ability. It has more advanced language ability, and its understanding, generation, logic, and memory abilities are comprehensively improved."
It also has "high EQ", and it is easy to understand network memes and satirical cartoons, Baidu said.
One of China's earliest tech giants to launch a ChatGPT-style chatbot, Baidu has struggled to gain widespread adoption for its Ernie large language model, despite claiming performance comparable to OpenAI's GPT-4, amid fierce competition.
Multimodal AI systems are capable of processing and integrating various types of data including text, video, images and audio, and can convert content across these formats.
Along with Baidu, Baichuan Intelligent Technology and Zhipu AI are also launching artificial intelligence products after getting government approval as China accelerates AI deployment.
