Baidu unveils big bets on AI apps and affordable models at Wuhan developer conference

['Shuang Jing', 'More Shuang Jing', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar'] TechNode 2025-04-27 00:00:00

At its Create 2025 conference in Wuhan last Friday, Baidu doubled down on its vision that the future of AI lies in creating smarter applications. Ernie 4.5 Turbo costs about 40% of DeepSeek’s V3 model, while X1 Turbo undercuts DeepSeek’s R1 by offering prices at just 25% of its competitor’s rates. X1 Turbo prices are similarly aggressive at RMB 1 ($ 0.14) for input and RMB 4 ($ 0.55) for output. Baidu plans to scale this to over 100,000 tasks, with a PC version already in the works. It also added support for the MCP (Model Capability Protocol) standard, which enables seamless interaction between AI models, third-party tools, and databases – a move that could make Baidu’s platform more attractive to outside developers.