Baidu ups the ante with the release of its latest AI models

Baidu Inc on Friday unveiled its latest large language model Ernie 4.5 Turbo and new deep-thinking model Ernie X1 Turbo with enhanced multimodal capacities, stronger reasoning and lower costs, as the Chinese tech heavyweight is doubling down on the fast-evolving artificial intelligence sector.

The multimodal LLM, which possesses the ability to process and generate various types of content, covering text, images, audio and video, will become a common feature for future foundational models, said Robin Li, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu, at the company's annual AI developer conference on Friday.

Li said the market of AI models which can just deal with pure text prompts will shrink, while that of multimodal AI models will continue to expand, while highlighting the importance of bolstering the application of AI.