KEY TAKEAWAYS Chinese tech giant Baidu said it has launched two artificial intelligence models, including the ERNIE X1, which it claims delivers the same performance as DeepSeek R1 “at only half the price.

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

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.