Tech Desk 
Mar 16, 2025
In a move to strengthen its position in the AI race, Chinese tech giant Baidu has introduced two new artificial intelligence (AI) models, ERNIE X1 and ERNIE 4.5, to remain ahead of rival AI makers in the market.
Regarding ERNIE X1's reasoning prowess, Baidu said it focuses on reasoning and is designed to rival DeepSeek’s AI model, according to Reuters.
"ERNIE X1 delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price," Baidu said about one of the new models. The X1 is equipped with "stronger understanding, planning, reflection, and evolution capabilities," as it is the first deep thinking model that uses tools without human intervention.
ERNIE 4.5 has "excellent multimodal understanding ability. It has more advanced language ability, and its understanding, generation, logic, and memory abilities are comprehensively improved," said the Chinese AI giant.
Baidu's new AI models come on the heels of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, which has been making headlines with its AI models claimed to match or even surpass leading US-based AI systems at a much lower cost.
Baidu highlighted that its new AI model possesses "high EQ" (emotional intelligence) and is capable of understanding internet memes and satirical cartoons. This feature aims to improve user interaction and content interpretation.
The multimodal capabilities of the latest Baidu AI models allow them to process different types of data, including text, video, images, and audio.
