Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) is gearing up to launch Ernie 4.5, its next-generation AI model, in mid-March, promising better reasoning and expanded multimodal capabilities, according to Reuters. CEO Robin Li is betting big on the upgrade, calling Ernie 4.5 "our best model ever" during Baidu's Q4 earnings call on Feb. 18.
To get more users on board, Baidu is making the Ernie 4.5 series open source, a move inspired by the rapid adoption of DeepSeek's AI model. The company is also making its Ernie Bot chatbot free for all users starting April 1, signaling a push to compete with Chinese AI rivals like Alibaba's (NYSE:BABA) Qwen2.5-VL and ByteDance's Doubao.
Looking ahead, Baidu has even bigger plans, with Ernie 5 expected to launch in the second half of 2025. Despite cost-cutting breakthroughs from competitors like DeepSeek, Li stressed that investment in cloud infrastructure and data centers remains crucial to keeping Baidu's AI ahead of the curve.
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