Baidu to launch next-generation AI model this year

China’s Baidu plans to launch the next iteration of its artificial intelligence model in the second half of 2025, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. The new Ernie 5 model will have multimodal capabilities that will allow it to process and convert various formats, including text, video, images and audio, reported by the Reuters.

Ernie 5 and ChatGPT

The planned release comes amid intensifying competition in China’s AI sector, particularly from startup DeepSeek, which gained popularity after launching a reasoning model that matches the performance of OpenAI’s GPT at a lower cost.

Despite becoming an early adopter of AI in China after the debut of ChatGPT in 2022, Baidu has struggled to gain widespread adoption of its large-scale Ernie language model, although the company says its latest version, Ernie 4, matches the capabilities of OpenAI’s GPT-4.

Ernie 5 and DeepSeek

The tech giant’s AI offerings have lagged behind domestic rivals, including ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot and newcomer DeepSeek, in terms of user adoption. Baidu CEO Robin Li told a conference in Dubai on Tuesday that DeepSeek’s sudden emergence demonstrated the unpredictable nature of innovation. “You just don’t know when and where innovation is coming from,” he said. During the event, Li also said that investment in data centers and cloud infrastructure was still needed, even though DeepSeek called into question the cost-effectiveness of large AI models.