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BEIJING, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Chinese search engine leader Baidu 9888.HK said on Thursday it would make its artificial intelligence chatbot Ernie Bot free starting April 1, citing improved technology and reduced costs.

The AI service will be accessible at no cost to all users on both desktop and mobile platforms, Baidu said in a WeChat post.

Baidu faces growing competition in China's AI sector, particularly from DeepSeek which offers free AI chatbot services whose performance the startup said is comparable to the advanced systems of U.S. pioneer OpenAI at lower operational cost.

Baidu was among China's first movers in AI following the 2022 debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT, but has struggled to gain widespread adoption for its Ernie large language model. It has said its latest version, Ernie 4.0, matches OpenAI's GPT-4 capabilities.

In terms of user adoption, Baidu's AI offerings have lagged those of domestic competitors such as ByteDance's Doubao chatbot and newcomer DeepSeek, showed data from AI product tracker Aicpb.com.

In late 2023, Baidu introduced premium features to its search engine powered by its advanced models including Ernie 4.0, charging 59.9 yuan ($8.18) a month.

It also announced on Thursday the launch of an advanced search function which would also be freely available from April 1. The feature promises enhanced reasoning capability and tool integration for delivering expert-level responses, Baidu said.

(Reporting by Liam Mo and Brenda; Editing by Kim Coghill and Christopher Cushing)

((qiaoyi.li@thomsonreuters.com;))