Baidu, the leading search engine in China, announced on Friday its intention to release the next-generation Artificial Intelligence model, Ernie, as open-source on June 30. This represents a significant shift in the company’s strategy in response to intensifying competition within the AI landscape.
The company’s CEO, Robin Li, has traditionally championed the development of closed-source AI models, believing that this approach was essential for progress in the field. However, the emergence of DeepSeek, a startup providing open-source AI solutions that rival the performance of established products from OpenAI, has disrupted this viewpoint.
In an effort to capture a larger share of the market, Baidu also revealed on Thursday that it will make its AI chatbot, Ernie Bot, available for free starting April 1. This change comes approximately 18 months after the company launched premium versions of the bot.
Following the introduction of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, Baidu was one of the first major Chinese firms to heavily invest in AI initiatives. Nevertheless, its Ernie model has faced challenges in achieving widespread adoption. Baidu asserts that its latest version, Ernie 4.0, is competitive with OpenAI’s GPT-4.
As of January, data from AI product tracker Aicpb.com indicated that ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot leads with 78.6 million active monthly users, while DeepSeek follows with 33.7 million, and Ernie Bot lags behind at 13 million.
“We will gradually launch the Ernie 4.5 series in the coming months and officially open-source it from June 30,” the company stated in a post on WeChat.
Li appeared to embrace a more open-source approach when addressing participants at an event in Dubai earlier this week, noting that such a move could expedite AI adoption. “If you open things up, a lot of people will be curious enough to try it. This will help spread the technology much faster,” he remarked.
Additionally, Baidu is planning to unveil a new model, Ernie 5, in the latter half of 2025, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans.
© Thomson Reuters 2025
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