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Investing.com-- Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) said on Friday that it will make the next generation of its Ernie artificial intelligence model open-source in the coming months, as it grapples with increased competition from local players, such as DeepSeek.
The Chinese internet search giant will launch Ernie 4.5- the next generation of its in-house AI model- in the coming months, and make it open-source from June 30, Baidu said in a social media post.
The move marks a reversal in Baidu’s stance on open-sourcing its AI models, as CEO Robin Li repeatedly advocated closed-source AI models as the only viable means of AI development.
But the release of DeepSeek R1 in late-January shook up the AI market, given that the Chinese open-source model appeared to match offerings from ChatGPT while using older hardware and a fraction of the latter’s budget.
Baidu on Thursday also said it will make its AI chatbot Ernie Bot free from April 1. Baidu claims that its current Ernie 4.0 AI model matches GPT-4.
The internet giant- one of China’s biggest tech firms- was among the first major Chinese firms to ramp up AI spending and development after the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. But its offerings have largely lagged rivals in China and the world in terms of adoption.
The company is also grappling with increased competition from local rivals such as Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and Bytedance, both of which increased their AI efforts in the wake of DeepSeek's launch.
Reuters had earlier reported that Baidu plans a launch of Ernie 5.0 in the second half of 2025.