Baidu Inc. released a new artificial intelligence model that articulates its reasoning, in an apparent bid to regain momentum against up-and-coming rivals like DeepSeek.

Chinese internet search giant Baidu released a new artificial intelligence reasoning model Sunday and made its AI chatbot services free to consumers as ferocious competition grips the sector. Baidu faces stiff competition in the consumer-facing AI sector where startup DeepSeek shook up the industry at home and abroad with a model that performed comparably to competitors such as US-made ChatGPT,

Baidu's reasoning model excels in areas like daily dialogs, complex calculations and logical deduction, it said in a statement

The world was just getting used to Chinese AI company DeepSeek being cheaper and better than many AI models released in the west, but it's now been upstaged -- and by another Chinese company at

Chinese tech giant Baidu launched two new AI models on Sunday: ERNIE 4.5, a native multimodal model, and ERNIE X1, a deep-thinking reasoning model.

China's Baidu said on Sunday it has launched two new artificial intelligence models, including a new reasoning-focused model that it said rivalled DeepSeek's model, as it vies to stand out in a fiercely competitive AI race.

Tech giant says reasoning model Ernie X1 ‘delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price’.