Published: 14:11, July 1, 2024
Baidu launches advanced AI model
By Fan Feifei

Attendees learn about Baidu's products at the Create 2024 Baidu AI Developer Conference held on April 16, 2024 in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Chinese tech heavyweight Baidu Inc has unveiled the latest version of its large language model, Ernie 4.0 Turbo, which will be available to the public via web interfaces and mobile apps.

The newly launched model offers faster responses and superior performance, elevating the capabilities of its previous version Ernie 4.0, according to the company. Developers can integrate the technology through Baidu's Qianfan LLM platform.

The announcement came as US company OpenAI announced plans to block access to its API from China and other countries starting July 9

So far, Baidu's AI-powered chatbot Ernie Bot has garnered 300 million users since its debut in March 2023, while Ernie API or application programming interface now handles 500 million daily queries, said Wang Haifeng, chief technology officer of the company.

The announcement came as US company OpenAI announced plans to block access to its API from China and other countries starting July 9.

ALSO READ: Ernie Bot helps Baidu double down on AI push

Baidu also announced the release of its upgraded deep learning platform, PaddlePaddle AI ecosystem, which the company said now supports 14.65 million developers, and serves 370,000 enterprises and institutions.

fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn