China's Baidu to Make Latest Ernie AI Model Open 642d3n Source as Competition Heats Up

Baidu was among the first big Chinese companies to invest heavily in AI following ChatGPT's launch. zt64

By Reuters | Updated: 14 February 2025 13:39 IST

China's Baidu to Make Latest Ernie AI Model Open-Source as Competition Heats Up

Photo Credit: Reuters 3v6d2p

Baidu plans to launch a new next-gen model, Ernie 5, in the second half of 2025

Highlights

Baidu CEO Robin Li had long advocated for closed-source models
Ernie large language model has struggled to gain widespread adoption
In China, ByteDance's Doubao chatbot has the most active monthly s

ment

Chinese search engine giant Baidu said on Friday it would make its next-generation Artificial Intelligence model Ernie open-source from June 30, a major shift in strategy as competition heats up.

OpenAI's advanced systems but come with a lower operational cost.

Keen to increase market share, Baidu also announced on Thursday that it would make its AI chatbot Ernie Bot free starting April 1, about a year and a half after introducing versions.

Baidu to Make AI Chatbot Ernie Bot Free of Charge from April 1

Baidu was among the first big Chinese companies to invest heavily in AI following the 2022 debut of OpenAI's Ernie 4.0, matches OpenAI's GPT-4 capabilities.

In China, ByteDance's Doubao chatbot has the most active monthly s with 78.6 million, DeepSeek has 33.7 million while Ernie Bot has 13 million, according to January data from AI product tracker Aib.com.

"We will gradually launch the Ernie 4.5 series in the coming months and officially open-source it from June 30," Baidu said in a WeChat post.

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Li appeared to have changed tack on open-source development, telling attendees at an event in Dubai this week that it could accelerate AI adoption.

"If you open things up, a lot of people will be curious enough to try it. This will help spread the technology much faster," he said.

Baidu also plans to launch a new next-generation model, Ernie 5, in the second half of 2025, a person familiar with the matter has said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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