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China’s big player in the search engine game is shaking things up in the country’s AI race. Baidu announced that ERNIE Bot, their AI chatbot, will be available for free, in a bid to stay ahead of the competition. This comes as fresh challengers like DeepSeek are disrupting the industry, pushing the battle to develop the next generation of AI even further.
The company announced on Thursday (Feb. 13), that starting April 1, Baidu’s AI chatbot, ERNIE Bot, will be free for everyone. Launched just months after OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a source cited by CNBC said that the “foundation model,” is set to have “big enhancements in multimodal capabilities.” Consequently, Baidu’s stock surged in Hong Kong, jumping as much as 7.9%, its biggest intraday gain since October.
Exciting news! ERNIE Bot will be free for all users starting April 1. Users will have access to all advanced features on desktop & mobile versions of the app.
We're also launching Deep Search, a new function with enhanced thinking, planning, and tool-calling, delivering… pic.twitter.com/AoQlTK5b6v
— Baidu Inc. (@Baidu_Inc) February 13, 2025
Baidu scrambles to compete with AI rivals in China
Coincidentally, Baidu’s stock surge came just a day after shares dipped on Wednesday following a report from The Information that the company was struggling to meet Apple’s standards for bringing AI to Chinese iPhones. Apple was reportedly considering partnering with other companies, including Alibaba. Then, on Thursday, speaking on stage at a conference in Dubai, Alibaba’s chairman, Joe Tsai, confirmed that the e-commerce giant is indeed working with Apple.
However, Baidu’s latest move could further fuel the pricing war among the nation’s major AI players, including Alibaba and ByteDance. While ERNIE was among the first generative AI platforms to get Beijing’s approval for public use, rivals like ByteDance’s Doubao have since attracted more users.
In 2025, DeepSeek also agitated the AI industry with an advanced model trained at a fraction of the cost compared to both US and Chinese competitors. It’s now seeing growing adoption among local agencies. Meanwhile, Alibaba has gained traction with investors and users thanks to its improved Qwen model, which has held its own against Meta’s Llama and DeepSeek’s V3 in various performance tests.
Just in: We're rolling out the ERNIE 4.5 model series in the coming months and plan to open source the models from June 30th.
Curious about what's coming next? pic.twitter.com/cly6mx1hKr
— Baidu Inc. (@Baidu_Inc) February 14, 2025
Hence, it appears that Baidu is working to accelerate its offerings, announcing on Friday (Feb. 14) that it will roll out its ERNIE 4.5 model series in the coming months and plans to open-source the models starting June 30.
Featured image: Canva
