Baidu Unveils ERNIE 4.5 and Reasoning Model ERNIE X1, Makes ERNIE Bot Free Ahead of Schedule

Core Insights - Baidu has launched its latest foundation models, ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1, which are now freely accessible to individual users through ERNIE Bot's official website [1][4] - The launch signifies a major advancement in multimodal and reasoning models, emphasizing Baidu's ongoing investment in developing next-generation AI technologies [2][12] Product Features - ERNIE 4.5 is a native multimodal foundation model that excels in understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory, with significant improvements in hallucination prevention and coding abilities [5][6] - ERNIE X1 is a deep-thinking reasoning model that supports tool use and excels in various tasks such as Q&A, literary creation, and complex calculations [8][9] Pricing and Accessibility - ERNIE Bot is now available for free to the public ahead of schedule, with ERNIE 4.5's input and output prices starting at RMB 0.004 and RMB 0.016 per thousand tokens, respectively [10][11] - For enterprise users, ERNIE 4.5 is accessible via APIs on Baidu AI Cloud's Qianfan platform, with ERNIE X1 expected to be available soon at even lower prices [11] Integration Plans - Baidu plans to integrate ERNIE 4.5 and X1 into its product ecosystem, including Baidu Search and the Wenxiaoyan app, enhancing user experience [3][4] Technological Advancements - Key technologies behind ERNIE 4.5 include "FlashMask" Dynamic Attention Masking and Heterogeneous Multimodal Mixture-of-Experts, contributing to its superior performance compared to competitors [7] - ERNIE X1's capabilities are supported by Progressive Reinforcement Learning and an End-to-End Training Approach, enhancing its reasoning and tool-use functionalities [9]