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Baidu is making a major shift in its AI strategy by offering ERNIE Bot for free starting April 1 and open-sourcing its ERNIE AI model on June 30. This move signals a departure from its previous closed-source approach and is seen as a response to growing competition from ByteDance’s Doubao and DeepSeek.
Despite being one of the first Chinese companies to invest heavily in AI after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, Baidu has struggled to gain a strong foothold in the chatbot market. By making ERNIE Bot free and embracing open-source AI, Baidu aims to attract more users and accelerate innovation. CEO Robin Li, who once opposed open-source AI, now sees it as a way to drive broader adoption and development
Baidu plans to release ERNIE open-source and to also make its AI chatbot, ERNIE Bot, available free of charge starting April 1. This move is expected to help ERNIE Bot, which has so far not been successful in standing out among other AI chatbots in China, gain more users. Currently, ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot takes the position of market leader with 78.6 million active monthly users, followed by DeepSeek with 33.7 million while ERNIE Bot lags behind with 13 million users.
Baidu was one of the first Chinese companies to invest heavily in artificial intelligence in an attempt to compete with OpenAI after the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. Despite the latest efforts, ERNIE is still struggling to get traction. However, the company claims that its latest version, ERNIE 4.0, is on par with OpenAI’s GPT-4 in terms of capabilities.
The open-sourcing of ERNIE reflects a major change of Baidu’s strategic direction. The company's CEO, Robin Li, previously opposed open-source AI due to Li claiming that Open AI could slow down the adoption of the technology. During an event in Dubai, Li stated that issuing AI models as open-source would permit more people to use it, thus allowing for greater advancements and diversification in its usage.
Baidu also plans to release ERNIE 5 as its next generation AI model during the second half of 2025. The company makes this strategic shift because it aims to build its AI business alongside increased customer acquisition.
As Baidu provides ERNIE Bot free of charge while planning open-source model availability, the company positions itself for growth against competitors in the AI domain. Further months will show whether the recent updates to ERNIE Bot succeed in catching up to dominant market players like ChatGPT.
