China’s leading technology company, Baidu, is preparing to release Ernie 5.0, the latest iteration of its artificial intelligence foundation model, in the second half of this year. A source familiar with the matter stated that the new model will bring significant advancements in multimodal capabilities, enhancing its ability to process and integrate text, video, images, and audio.

Baidu has been at the forefront of AI innovation in China, having launched its ChatGPT-like chatbot, Ernie, in March 2023. However, the competition has intensified with the emergence of other AI models from companies like Alibaba and ByteDance, as well as disruptive startups such as DeepSeek. In January, DeepSeek gained global attention with its open-source AI model, which impressed users with its reasoning capabilities and significantly lower costs compared to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

At the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Baidu CEO Robin Li highlighted the rapid decline in AI inference costs, stating that costs have decreased by over 90% in just 12 months. “If you can reduce the cost by a certain percentage, then that means your productivity increases by that kind of percentage. I think that’s pretty much the nature of innovation,” Li said during a discussion with Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE’s minister of state for artificial intelligence.

Baidu’s AI technology is already integrated into various consumer and enterprise products, including cloud services and content creation tools. One such service, the Wenku platform, has seen significant growth, reaching 40 million paying users by the end of 2024—a 60% increase from the previous year. The platform now allows users to generate presentations using AI based on financial filings and other documents.

Despite its continued advancements, Baidu’s AI developments face challenges from both domestic and international competitors. While Alibaba’s stock has surged 33% this year, Baidu’s shares have increased only 6%, with Tencent trailing at 4%. Meanwhile, OpenAI remains a dominant force in the global AI industry, with the release of its GPT-4o model in May 2024. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has not provided a timeline for the launch of GPT-5.

Baidu has not officially announced details regarding the Ernie 5.0 upgrade. The company’s latest public release was Ernie 4.0 in October 2023, followed by an enhanced version, Ernie 4.0 Turbo, in August 2024. As Chinese AI companies strive to match and surpass their Western counterparts, Ernie 5.0 is expected to play a crucial role in shaping the future of AI technology.

SOURCE: CNBC | PHOTO: MANDY ZHUO/SCMP

This article was created with AI assistance.