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

Chinese search engine Baidu has launched two new AI models — Ernie 4.5, the latest version of the company’s foundational model first released two years ago, as well as a new reasoning model, Ernie X1.

Baidu's efforts come on the heels of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek unveiling its AI model R1 in January and detailing in a paper how large language models, or LLMs, could be built on tight budgets and improved without human supervision. U.S. tech stocks plunged on Jan. 27, with Nvidia seeing around $589B in market cap erased on that day.