According to the announcement on March 16, Ernie 4.5 is a multimodal AI model capable of processing text, images, audio, and video. Baidu claims that this model outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4o on several evaluation criteria such as CCBench and OCRBench. In terms of text processing, Ernie 4.5 is rated slightly higher than DeepSeek V3 and almost equal to OpenAI's GPT-4.5.

Meanwhile, the Ernie X1 is designed specifically for reasoning and is touted by Baidu as achieving performance on par with the DeepSeek R1 but at a significantly lower cost.

Baidu offers Ernie 4.5 and Ernie X1 for free to general users to expand their reach and promote the popularity of AI. For businesses that want to use it via API, Baidu applies separate fees. Specifically, the Ernie X1 API costs 2 yuan ($0.28) for every million token inputs and 8 yuan ($1.12) for every million token outputs.

The emergence of DeepSeek with its high-performance, low-cost AI models has shaken up the AI ​​market in China and globally. Many Chinese companies and local government agencies have been quick to integrate DeepSeek models into their systems, putting pressure on major tech companies such as Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba to catch up.

Notably, Baidu has changed its stance on open-source AI, with Robin Li Yanhong, the company’s founder and CEO, announcing that Ernie 4.5 will be open-sourced on June 30. He acknowledged that open-sourcing can promote wider adoption and popularity, a lesson learned from DeepSeek.

Despite significant progress in AI, Baidu is still facing financial difficulties as advertising revenue declines. The company’s revenue fell 2% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2024, resulting in a 1% decline for the year. Meanwhile, rivals such as ByteDance and Moonshot AI are gaining more users, posing a challenge to Baidu in the consumer AI market.

The fact that Chinese AI models compete on par with, and even surpass, OpenAI or Google products on some evaluation criteria is showing a strong breakthrough in the Chinese technology industry. With the trend of open source and cost optimization, the AI ​​race in China is hotter than ever.

Ngoc Anh (according to SCMP, CNA)