• Baidu's Ernie Bot will be free for users starting April 1, 2025.
• The company plans to shift to open-source AI models by June 30, 2025.
• DeepSeek's competitive strategies are prompting major changes among AI firms, including Baidu and OpenAI.
• Baidu aims to enhance its market share as competition intensifies in China's AI landscape.

BEIJING: In a significant strategic shift, Baidu has announced that its AI chatbot, Ernie Bot, will be available free of charge from April 1, 2025. This move comes as the Beijing-based search engine giant faces escalating competition in China's rapidly evolving AI sector, notably from startups like DeepSeek, which offer comparable AI services at lower operational costs.

According to Reuters, Baidu has initiated a major change in its AI strategy, aiming to expand accessibility to its services and attract more users. The company has also leveraged technological advancements and reduced costs to make this generous offering possible.

Baidu's announcement follows its recent test with premium features, which had already garnered a substantial user base. The improvements in the latest version, Ernie 4.0, claim to match OpenAI's GPT-4 capabilities and introduce functionalities such as Deep Search, which enhances AI reasoning across multiple scenarios, available for free alongside the Ernie Bot.

This pivot to free services and upcoming open-source models, which will be available from June 30, represents a significant turnaround from Baidu's traditional preference for closed-source development, as highlighted by CEO Robin Li at a recent event. “If you open things up, a lot of people will be curious enough to try it,” he remarked, underlining the importance of a more accessible approach in accelerating AI adoption.

Although Baidu has established a robust foundation in AI following the emergence of competitive models, its Ernie Bot currently has approximately 13 million active monthly users, significantly trailing behind competitors like ByteDance’s Doubao, which leads the market with around 78.6 million MAUs. This shift also signifies that major players like Baidu and OpenAI are reevaluating their strategies to align with market demands and technological advancements, as observed in the competitive landscape fueled by DeepSeek’s entry.

For further details, read the full article on South China Morning Post. Links to additional coverage can be found in the original reports by Channel News Asia and SCMP.