Insiders have revealed that Chinese tech giant Baidu plans to roll out its next-generation artificial intelligence model in the second half of this year. This move is driven by the ripple effects created by emerging companies like DeepSeek within the AI sector.
According to sources, the new model, named Wenxin 5.0, is positioned as a "foundation model" and aims to achieve "significant improvements" in multimodal capabilities, although specific features have yet to be disclosed. "Multimodal" AI refers to systems capable of processing various types of information, including text, video, images, and audio, and can seamlessly convert and combine between these categories, such as turning text into videos or vice versa.
As a foundation model, Wenxin 5.0 will feature language understanding capabilities and be able to perform multiple tasks, including generating text and images, as well as engaging in natural language conversations.
Baidu's upgrade plan comes at a time when Chinese companies are intensifying efforts to develop innovative AI models to compete with U.S.-based firms like OpenAI. In late January, Hangzhou-based startup DeepSeek unveiled its open-source AI model, which garnered attention for its superior reasoning capabilities and was touted as being significantly more cost-effective than OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This announcement caused fluctuations in global tech stocks.
In a fireside chat during the World Government Summit in Dubai this week, Baidu CEO Robin Li stated, “We live in an exciting era… the inference cost of foundation models can drop by over 90% within 12 months.” During his conversation with Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, Li further emphasized, “If you can reduce costs to some extent, productivity will increase proportionally. I believe this is the essence of innovation.”
Back in March 2023, Baidu became the first major Chinese tech company to launch a ChatGPT-like chatbot, Wenxin. However, despite a strong initial start, it was later surpassed by products from startups and large tech companies like Alibaba and ByteDance.
This year, Alibaba's stock has surged by 33%, Baidu's by 6%, and Tencent's by approximately 4%. Notably, ByteDance remains unlisted.
Baidu’s Wenxin model has already integrated generative AI into several consumer and business-oriented products, including cloud storage and content creation platforms. Last month, Baidu announced that as of the end of 2024, its document creation platform Wenku had reached 40 million paying users, marking a 60% increase from the end of 2023. Updates like AI-generated presentations based on financial reports were rolled out to users starting in January this year.
The current version of the Wenxin model is Generation 4, launched in October 2023. The enhanced "Turbo" version of Wenxin 4.0 is scheduled for release in August 2024. Details regarding the timeline for the next generation update have not been officially disclosed by Baidu.
Meanwhile, OpenAI’s latest iteration of ChatGPT, GPT-4, was released in May 2024. In an "ask me anything" session on Reddit earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that there is currently no public timetable for the release of GPT-5.
Baidu has declined to comment on the above information.
