Chinese language search engine Baidu has launched two new AI fashions — Ernie 4.5, the newest model of the corporate’s foundational mannequin first released two years ago, in addition to a brand new reasoning mannequin, Ernie X1.

According to Reuters, Baidu claims that Ernie X1’s efficiency is “on par with DeepSeek R1 at solely half the worth,”, and it touts Ernie 4.5’s “excessive EQ,” permitting the mannequin to know memes and satire. Each fashions have multimodal capabilities, permitting them to course of video, photos, and audio, in addition to textual content.

Whereas Baidu was one of many first Chinese language corporations to launch a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, it has reportedly struggled to seek out widespread adoption. In the meantime, the aforementioned DeepSeek just lately unsettled American AI companies and buyers by releasing fashions that have been seemingly simply as highly effective at a a lot decrease price.

CNBC beforehand reported that Baidu plans to release its next generation model, Ernie 5, later this 12 months, with additional multimodal enhancements.