Latest news with #RobinLiYanhong
South China Morning Post
26-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
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 Advertisement 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. Advertisement
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Baidu launches new AI models, touts superiority to DeepSeek, OpenAI on benchmarks
Chinese technology giant Baidu released two new artificial intelligence (AI) models that it touted as stronger than those of DeepSeek and OpenAI based on certain benchmarks, as the large language model (LLM) competition continues to heat up. Baidu made its latest multimodal foundational model Ernie 4.5 and its first multimodal reasoning model Ernie X1 freely available on its website on Sunday. Ernie 4.5's multimodal capabilities, which cover images, audio and video, outperformed OpenAI's GPT-4o on several benchmark platforms including CCBench and OCRBench, Baidu said in a statement posted on WeChat. The Ernie 4.5 foundational model's text capabilities also surpassed that of DeepSeek V3 based on several benchmarks, and roughly matched US firm OpenAI's GPT-4.5, the company said. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Baidu was the first Chinese Big Tech firm to launch an LLM in China in March 2023 following the frenzy created by the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT. But its early-mover advantage was challenged by China's other AI players in the last two years. The search giant's latest move to increase its relevance in China's AI market came as DeepSeek has fanned an open-source wave, with Alibaba, Tencent and Bytedance galloping ahead in grabbing business and consumer users for their models. Baidu did not provide benchmark results for its new reasoning model Ernie X1, but said that it "delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price". Pricing for business access to Ernie X1's application programming interface (API) is set at 2 yuan (US$0.28) per million token inputs and 8 yuan per million token outputs, the company said. DeepSeek is currently charging US$$0.55 per million token inputs and US$2.19 per million token outputs for DeepSeek-reasoner, which is powered by its reasoning model R1. The Hangzhou-based start-up last month raised its API prices amid a surge in demand. Robin Li Yanhong, founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu, speaks during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Beijing on March 16, 2023. Photo: Reuters alt=Robin Li Yanhong, founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu, speaks during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Beijing on March 16, 2023. Photo: Reuters> Baidu's founder, chairman and CEO Robin Li Yanhong said last month that Ernie 4.5 would be open source from June 30 - a 180-degree turn from his long-held support for closed-source AI development. "One thing we learned from DeepSeek is that open sourcing the best models can greatly help adoption," Li said in an earnings call with analysts in February. "When the model is open source, people naturally want to try it out of curiosity, which helps drive broader adoption." Despite its progress in AI, weak ad revenue is weighing on Beijing-based Baidu's business. Total revenue for the fourth quarter fell 2 per cent year on year, with full-year revenue declining 1 per cent, it said last month. This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
South China Morning Post
18-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Baidu hit by weak ad spending in 2024, but AI remains a bright spot
Chinese internet search giant Baidu 's revenue fell 2 per cent in the fourth quarter, as China's sputtering economic growth weighed on advertising spending, even as artificial intelligence (AI) remained a bright spot despite fresh competition. Beijing-based Baidu's total revenue for the fourth quarter fell to 34.1 billion yuan (US$4.7 billion), the company reported on Tuesday. Revenue for the year declined 1 per cent to 133 billion yuan. Net income for the December quarter reached 5.1 billion yuan, up 100 per cent year on year. Net income for the full year was 23.7 billion yuan, a 17 per cent increase over 2023. Baidu co-founder and CEO Robin Li Yanhong said 2024 marked a pivotal year in the firm's transformation from an internet-centric business to one that is AI-first. 'With our strategic foresight increasingly validated, we expect our AI investments to deliver more significant results in 2025,' he said in a statement. Baidu's core online marketing revenue for the year fell 3 per cent to 73 billion yuan. Junjie He, Baidu's interim chief financial officer, said the 'softness in online marketing' was offset by the company's AI cloud business, which grew 26 per cent for the quarter.
South China Morning Post
14-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
DeepSeek spurs Baidu, other AI competitors to adopt open-source strategy
Published: 6:30pm, 14 Feb 2025 Chinese internet search giant Baidu and ChatGPT creator OpenAI are among the nascent field's major players who have shifted their attention to open-source development, which would enable improved efficiency and a broader adoption of their AI products. Baidu on Friday said the next generation of its Ernie LLM will be open source from June 30, according to a statement from the Beijing-based company, in a 180-degree turn from founder, chairman and chief executive Robin Li Yanhong 's long-held backing of closed-source AI development. That followed Baidu's announcement on Thursday that its Ernie Bot service will be free to use from April 1 , providing wider access to the company's Ernie LLMs. That will end a 17-month-long push to monetise the service, which currently charges users a monthly fee of 49.90 yuan (US$6.84) for access to the firm's AI models. Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. Baidu's Ernie Bot service had a user base of 430 million as of November 2024. Photo: Shutterstock Baidu's major shift in strategy reflects heightened competition in China's AI market, where Hangzhou -based DeepSeek and internet peer Alibaba Group Holding have recently made big strides in the technology's development and increased adoption. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
South China Morning Post
13-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Baidu to offer Ernie Bot service for free as DeepSeek heats up China's AI market
Published: 9:00pm, 13 Feb 2025 Chinese internet search giant Baidu will make its Ernie Bot service free to use from April 1, providing wider access to the company's own artificial intelligence (AI) models, as competition in this nascent field heats up with the rise of innovative newcomers like DeepSeek . Beijing -based Baidu said users of Ernie Bot's desktop and mobile versions will gain free access to its Ernie large language models (LLMs) on the back of 'continued upgrades and inference cost reductions', the company said in a statement on Thursday. The Ernie Bot platform on Thursday launched a function called Deep Search, which has enhanced capabilities in thinking, planning and providing expert-level response across multiple scenarios. This feature will also be available for free from April 1. Baidu's latest initiative reflects heightened competition in China's AI market, where start-up DeepSeek and internet peer Alibaba Group Holding have recently made big strides in the technology's development and increased adoption. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Baidu co-founder, chairman and chief executive Robin Li Yanhong. Photo: CCTV
