The Chinese corporation Baidu, which previously claimed the superiority of its chatbot Ernie Bot over ChatGPT, announced that it will open free access to this AI to users starting April 1.
The Chinese corporation Baidu, which previously claimed the superiority of its chatbot Ernie Bot over ChatGPT, announced that it will open free access to this AI to users starting April 1.
Baidu cited «cost reductions and technological improvements» as reasons for the move. Ernie Bot will be free on desktop and mobile devices, Engadget reports.
Additionally, Baidu plans to launch an advanced search feature on the same day. This feature will also be free and will have improved reasoning capabilities.
Baidu began offering premium features on its search engine in late 2023. They were based on advanced AI models, such as ERNIE 4.0. The company charged about $8 per month for these features. Baidu previously said that its Ernie 3.5 AI model outperformed OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT 4 in several important tests.
While Baidu was one of the first major Chinese companies to launch its own AI chatbot amid the rise of ChatGPT, it has struggled to find widespread adoption for Ernie, while its domestic competitors, such as ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot and the hyped DeepSeek (which offers its AI assistant for free), have a stronger user base.
Baidu is not the first company to make its AI products more accessible to users. In late January , Microsoft made OpenAI’s o1 model free for all Copilot users, following the popularity of China’s DeepSeek.
And OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently detailed the company’s plans for its GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 AI models, which will also be made partially free. He said the company is also working on making it easier for users to interact with ChatGPT.
