China's Baidu Unveils Faster, More Efficient ERNIE AI Models

Baidu has introduced two new AI models—ERNIE X1 Turbo and ERNIE 4.5 Turbo—designed to offer improved performance in areas such as multimodal understanding, logical reasoning, and tool integration.

These models build on the ERNIE series and are aimed at developers, researchers, and businesses.

The models were launched in China and will be made available globally via Baidu’s Qianfan platform and other cloud services. A key focus is cost efficiency: ERNIE X1 Turbo is priced at $0.14 per 1 million input tokens and $0.55 per 1 million output tokens, about 25% less than DeepSeek R1, according to Baidu.

Enhancements stem from advances in chain-of-thought reasoning, multimodal processing, and improved AI tool usage. Baidu had previously launched ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1 in March and made its ERNIE Bot chatbot free for individual users.

Despite being an early mover in China’s AI space with ERNIE 4.0, which aimed to match OpenAI’s GPT-4, Baidu continues to face strong competition from rivals such as DeepSeek.

Recently, Baidu also introduced a new AI agent, Xinxiang, designed to boost user productivity by helping with tasks like information analysis and travel planning.

Currently available on Android, the iOS version is awaiting approval from Apple.

Baidu says Xinxiang marks a move away from standard chatbot conversations, offering a more purpose-driven AI experience that focuses on real-world task completion.