“Revolutionary AI Breakthrough set to Unleash”
(Reuters) – A source with direct knowledge of the matter revealed to Reuters that China’s Baidu is gearing up to introduce the latest version of its artificial intelligence model in the latter half of 2025. The upcoming iteration, Ernie 5, will boast groundbreaking multimodal capabilities, allowing it to seamlessly process and convert various forms of data, such as text, video, images, and audio, as per CNBC’s earlier report.
This development comes amidst a fierce competitive landscape within China’s AI industry, with notable players like startup DeepSeek gaining traction for its reasoning model, which rivals OpenAI’s GPT performance at a more economical price point. Despite being an early adopter in the AI space following the debut of ChatGPT in 2022, Baidu has faced challenges in achieving widespread adoption for its Ernie large language model. Nonetheless, the company asserts that its latest iteration, Ernie 4, is on par with OpenAI’s GPT-4 capabilities.
Baidu’s AI offerings have faced stiff competition from domestic rivals, including ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot and the rising star DeepSeek, in terms of user acceptance. During a conference in Dubai, Baidu CEO Robin Li emphasized the unpredictable nature of innovation, citing DeepSeek’s sudden ascent as a prime example. Li also underscored the continued importance of investing in data centers and cloud infrastructure, despite DeepSeek’s efforts to challenge the cost efficiency of large AI models.
(Reporting by Liam Mo in Beijing, Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Sam Holmes)
