China's Baidu launches two new AI models as industry competition heats up
HONG KONG (Reuters) -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. Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's roll-out of AI models which it says is on par with, or even better than, industry-leading models in the United States at a fraction of the cost, has roiled the industry and re-energised the global AI race. "ERNIE X1 delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price," Baidu said of one of the new models.