Baidu shares jump 10% following release of new free-to-use AI models

ZHEJIANG, CHINA - MARCH 16 2023: A view of the logo of ERNIE Bot, an AI chatbot service developed by Chinese search engine Baidu, March 16, 2023. Shares of Chinese tech giant Baidu were trading up 10.7% in Asia on Tuesday, as investors appeared to react positively to the release of two new AI models over the weekend. Baidu released two new artificial intelligence models on Sunday, including the latest version of its foundational "Ernie" model and a new reasoning model that it said rivaled DeepSeek's R1 model. CNBC is not able to verify these claims. A reasoning model is a large language model designed to process complex problems in a similar way to humans, breaking prompts down into smaller pieces and considering multiple approaches before generating responses. According to Kai Wang, a senior equity analyst for Morningstar, the stock jump is likely a "delayed reaction" to the new models as Baidu vies to regain a leading position in China's AI space. "The stock also hasn't gotten a ... Read full article.