Baidu introduced Ernie X1, a reasoning model that can support tools such as advanced search, generation of AI images, and webpage reading.

Baidu Inc. released a new artificial intelligence model that articulates its reasoning, in an apparent bid to regain momentum against up-and-coming rivals like DeepSeek.The Ernie X1 model by China’s internet search leader works similarly to DeepSeek R1 — which shocked Silicon Valley by offering comparable performance to the world’s best chatbots at a fraction of their development cost.

DeepSeek has emerged as the new standard for AI model makers to beat after launching R1 just before Christmas. As a reasoning model, R1 stood out for matching the capabilities of the best U.S.-made AI models, despite its maker only spending a small fraction of the cost its rivals had spent in training it.