Baidu officially unveils ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1; ERNIE Bot now available for free to individual users ahead of schedule

Baidu Inc. officially unveiled its latest foundation models yesterday– ERNIE 4.5 ( native multimodal foundation model) and ERNIE X1 (deep-thinking reasoning model). ERNIE 4.5.

ERNIE 4.5

The company has revealed that ERNIE 4.5 has achieved collaborative optimization through joint modeling of multiple modalities. It exhibits comprehensive improvements in understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory, along with notable enhancements in hallucination prevention, logical reasoning, and coding abilities. ERNIE 4.5 outperforms GPT-4.5 in multiple benchmarks while priced at just 1% of GPT-4.5.

The significant enhancements in ERNIE 4.5’s capabilities are attributed to several key technologies including FlashMask Dynamic Attention Masking, Heterogeneous Multimodal Mixture-of-Experts, Spatioemporal Representation Compression, Knowledge-Centric Training Data Construction, Self-feedback Enhanced Post-Training.

ERNIE X1

ERNIE X1 possesses enhanced capabilities in understanding, planning, reflection, and evolution. As Baidu’s first multimodal deep-thinking reasoning model capable of tool use, X1 also excels in Chinese knowledge Q&A, literary creation, manuscript writing, dialogue, logical reasoning, and complex calculations. Specifically for tool use, X1 supports various tools including advanced search, Q&A on given documents, image understanding, AI image generation, code interpreting, webpage reading, TreeMind mapping, Baidu academic search, business information search, and franchise information search.

The comprehensive uplift in ERNIE X1’s capabilities is underpinned by key technologies such as the Progressive Reinforcement Learning Method, End-to-End Training Approach Integrating Chains of Thought and Action, and A Unified Multi-Faceted Reward System.

ERNIE 4.5 & ERNIE X1: Availability

For enterprise users and developers, ERNIE 4.5 is now accessible via APIs on Baidu AI Clouds MaaS platform Qianfan while ERNIE X1 is set to be available on the platform soon. ERNIE 4.5 Input and output prices start as low as $0.55 per 1M tokens and $2.2 per 1M tokens respectively. While ERNIE X1 Input and output prices start as low as $0.28 per 1M tokens and $1.1 per 1M tokens, respectively (Exchange rate used: 1RMB=0.14 USD).

For individual users, Baidu is planning to expand the integration of ERNIE 4.5 and X1 across Baidu’s ecosystem, including Baidu Search, the Wenxiaoyan APP, and other offerings.

With the launch of ERNIE 4.5 & X1, ERNIE Bot is made free to the public ahead of schedule. Both models are now freely accessible to individual users through ERNIE Bot’s official website. Baidu has already announced its plan to open-source the ERNIE 4.5 model in the next few months.