Baidu Unveils Advanced AI Models: Ernie 4.5 and Ernie X1
Baidu has launched two groundbreaking artificial intelligence models, Ernie 4.5 and Ernie X1, marking a significant advancement in AI technology. The Ernie 4.5 model is a foundation model that builds on its predecessor, while the Ernie X1 introduces a reasoning-focused approach, touted as Baidu’s first “deep-thinking” AI. In a notable move, Baidu has also made its AI platform, Ernie Bot, freely accessible to users, eliminating any premium fees for chatbot interactions.
Baidu Releases New Ernie AI Models
On Sunday, Baidu announced the debut of its latest AI models, Ernie 4.5 and Ernie X1. Currently, the Ernie 4.5 model is available through the company’s chatbot platform, while the Ernie X1 is expected to launch soon. Unlike typical AI model releases that often include research papers and open-source repositories, Baidu has opted not to provide such documentation at this time. The company confirmed that the Ernie 4.5 model will be open-sourced on June 30, allowing developers access to its source code and model weights. However, no similar announcement has been made regarding the Ernie X1 reasoning model.
Ernie 4.5 is designed as a multimodal AI model, capable of processing text, images, audio, and video inputs. Users can upload various file formats and pose questions to the AI. Baidu has enhanced the model’s language capabilities, enabling it to respond more effectively to conversational messages and complex queries that require reasoning and memory. Additionally, Ernie 4.5 can interpret contextual content, including memes and satire.
Performance Metrics and Pricing
Baidu asserts that the Ernie 4.5 model outperforms GPT-4.5 across multiple benchmarks, while being offered at just one percent of the cost of its competitor. These performance claims are based on Baidu’s internal testing. Beyond the AI platform, Ernie 4.5 is also accessible via application programming interfaces on Baidu AI Cloud’s MaaS platform, Quianfan. In terms of pricing, Baidu has set the input costs for Ernie 4.5 at CNY 0.004 (approximately Rs. 0.04) per thousand tokens, with output prices at CNY 0.016 (around Rs. 0.19) per thousand tokens.
Introducing Ernie X1: A New Era of Reasoning AI
The Ernie X1 model represents Baidu’s foray into advanced reasoning capabilities. This multimodal reasoning model is designed to excel in various tasks, including Chinese knowledge Q&A, literary creation, manuscript writing, dialogue, logical reasoning, and complex mathematics. It supports a range of tools such as advanced search, image understanding, document analysis, image generation, code interpretation, webpage reading, and TreeMind mapping. Baidu has trained the Ernie X1 model using progressive reinforcement learning (RL), employing an end-to-end training approach and a unified multi-faceted reward system. Similar to the DeepSeek-R1 model, Ernie X1 features a visible chain of thought (CoT) to enhance its reasoning capabilities. While the Ernie X1 model is not yet available on the Quianfan platform, Baidu has indicated that its pricing will be competitive, with input costs set at CNY 0.002 (approximately Rs. 0.02) and output costs at CNY 0.008 (around Rs. 0.09) per thousand tokens once it is released.
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