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OpenAI can’t take a break with Baidu’s rapid AI model launches. China’s AI push is back, with Baidu releasing two powerful AI models priced at just 1% of OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 and half the price of DeepSeek’s R1. With these impressive performances at low-cost, we might be seeing the start of a global AI price war.
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AI INSIGHTS
🤖 Baidu Launches ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1
Baidu has launched its latest foundation models: ERNIE 4.5 (a native multimodal model) and ERNIE X1 (a deep-thinking reasoning model). These models are now freely accessible to individual users via ERNIE Bot (available at https://yiyan.baidu.com/) ahead of the previously planned date (April 1, 2025).
Key Takeaways:
Baidu's New AI Models: ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1:
ERNIE 4.5 is Baidu’s latest multimodal AI model, designed for everyday tasks. It competes with OpenAI's GPT-4o and DeepSeek’s V3.
ERNIE X1 is a specialized reasoning model built for advanced tasks such as mathematics and complex coding, competing with models like DeepSeek-R1 and OpenAI’s o3-mini.
It outperforms GPT-4.5 in multiple benchmarks, with 1% of the cost of GPT-4.5.
Performance of ERNIE X1:
ERNIE X1 aims to offer similar performance to DeepSeek-R1 but at half the price, particularly for output token pricing.
The pricing claim holds at standard rates, but during DeepSeek’s discounted periods, ERNIE X1 can be more expensive.
Detailed benchmarks for ERNIE X1 are still unavailable, leaving some uncertainty about its performance in real-world scenarios.
Pricing and Access:
Enterprise users and developers can access ERNIE 4.5 via the Qianfan Foundation Model Platform on Baidu AI Cloud.
Pricing for ERNIE 4.5 starts at RMB 0.004 per thousand tokens for input and RMB 0.016 per thousand tokens for output.
ERNIE X1 will soon be available on the Qianfan Platform, with pricing for input at RMB 0.002 per thousand tokens and output at RMB 0.008 per thousand tokens.
Why it matters: Baidu's ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1 are making waves in the global AI market, offering competitive pricing and performance. While these models show potential, especially ERNIE X1 in reasoning and coding, they still face challenges. The lack of benchmarks and usability issues might limit their global impact. ERNIE 4.5 competes well with models like GPT-4o, but its accessibility for non-Chinese users remains a hurdle. More testing and validation are needed for these models to reach their full potential internationally.
TODAY IN AI
AI HIGHLIGHTS
🎮 Xbox's VP of Gaming AI just introduced Copilot for Gaming, an AI tool that helps players improve skills, get tips during gameplay, and overcome challenges—available on Xbox and Windows 10/11 PCs!
🤖 Claude just launched "extended thinking" in Claude Code! Now, you can ask it to "think" or "think harder," and it’ll show its thought process—powered by Claude 3.7 Sonnet.
⚙️ OpenAI’s Kevin Weil predicts AI will surpass humans in coding by 2025, calling it a "democratizing effect" where anyone can create anything. The future of software is here.
🚀 YC startups are growing faster than ever, thanks to AI! With smaller teams, sometimes under 10 people, and up to $10M in revenue, they've seen an average growth rate of 10% per week.
🖼️ Users are buzzing about Gemini 2.0 Flash, which can easily remove watermarks from images, including stock photos from companies like Getty Images—offering a free tool for watermark removal
🤖 Mistral Small 3.1, the new AI model from Mistral AI, offers improved performance over Mistral Small 3. It’s open-source under the Apache 2.0 license and runs on hardware like RTX 4090 or a Mac with 32GB RAM. Perfect for on-device applications!
💾 Google is teaming up with Taiwan's MediaTek to develop the next-gen AI chips, Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). However, it’s still keeping its partnership with Broadcom, its long-time AI chip designer.
💰 AI Daily Fundraising: SoftBank has bought a $676 million Sharp plant in Osaka to create an AI data center. This move supports SoftBank’s collaboration with OpenAI to bring advanced AI models to Japan by 2026.
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AI QUICK HITS
📝 AI Summaries Are Coming to Notepad for Smarter Notes (Link)
🤖 Google’s AI Solves 10-Year-Old Problem in Just 2 Days (Link)
💉 AI Nurses Revolutionize Care, But Human Nurses Push Back (Link)
🏥 Harvard and MIT’s TxAgent Delivers Personalized Treatment Recommendations (Link)
🤖 BotQ Figure’s New Facility to Produce 12,000 Humanoid Robots Annually (Link)
AI JOBS
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