As competition among international developers intensifies in the wake of the booming popularity of startup DeepSeek’s models, Chinese internet search giant Baidu is going to make its sophisticated AI chatbot services free.
On Thursday, the Beijing-based startup said on WeChat that Ernie Bot, their AI chatbot with premium capabilities like AI painting, will be free to use on desktop and mobile devices as of April 1.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed the roadmap for its newest AI model, GPT-5, on X only hours before to Baidu’s release. He stated that while premium subscribers will have access to a “higher level of intelligence,” ChatGPT users will have unrestricted access to GPT-5 at no cost.
Baidu stated in a different article on Friday that it intends to release the next iteration of its AI model by the end of June. Additionally, it would make that model’s edition, like all of DeepSeek’s models, open source for the first time. Additionally, it stated that in April, Ernie’s Deep Search feature—which offers expert-level responses and improved reasoning capabilities—will also be made available for free.
The string of announcements reflects the pressure on Baidu and other companies in China’s escalating AI race, especially in the wake of DeepSeek’s recent launch. The Chinese startup’s most recent R1 AI model took aback the globe, which offered equal performance to US-based industry titans at a notably cheaper cost.
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