Baidu offers new AI models with enhanced features, lower cost than DeepSeek's products
Baidu on Friday launched two new artificial intelligence (AI) models that offer enhanced multimodal reasoning capabilities and cost less than comparable products from DeepSeek
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At a developer conference held in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province, Baidu co-founder, chairman and chief executive
Robin Li Yanhong unveiled the multimodal Ernie 4.5 Turbo and X1 Turbo reasoning models.
According to Li, Ernie 4.5 Turbo costs about 40 per cent less than DeepSeek's namesake
V3 large language model (LLM), while X1 Turbo is being offered at a quarter of the price of the Hangzhou-based AI
start-up 's
R1 reasoning model.
'The essence of innovation is the lowering of cost,' Li said in his keynote speech, which stretched more than an hour. He pointed out that this would help developers focus on creating 'more super interesting and useful' AI applications, rather than the expense involved in a foundational AI model.
That view reflects Li's earlier forecast about the
exponential growth of AI apps in China this year.
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