Chinese search engine giant Baidu said on Friday it would make its next-generation artificial intelligence model Ernie open-source from June 30, a major shift in strategy as competition heats up.

Baidu, the leading Chinese search engine company, will make its artificial intelligence model Ernie open-source to users starting June 30. Robin Li, Baidu’s CEO, has long favored closed-source models.

Baidu Inc. has taken the unprecedented step of declaring its Ernie AI model free for users, a move that could help the Chinese search giant regain momentum in a race to develop next-generation artificial intelligence.

The company, the operator of China’s most popular search engine, announced the plan today. Reuters reported that the initiative centers on an upcoming family of Ernie models dubbed the Ernie 4.5 series. Baidu will start rolling out the LLM series to users in the coming months and plans to open-source its code on June 30.

Baidu CEO Robin Li, who previously advocated for closed-source models, reportedly acknowledged the potential of open-source development to accelerate AI adoption.

Chinese internet search giant Baidu will make its Ernie Bot service free to use from April 1, providing wider access to the company's own artificial intelligence (AI) models, as competition in this nascent field heats up with the rise of innovative newcomers like DeepSeek.