Baidu made its AI model Ernie 4.5 open source, inspired by DeepSeek's success.CEO Robin Li previously said closed-source models were more powerful and economical.Baidu's shares surged last week after announcing its AI chatbot will be free from April 1.

Chinese search engine group Baidu , said on Tuesday that the success of AI company DeepSeek had inspired it to embrace an open source model, under which the source code of its upcoming generative AI chatbot release will be publicly available.

Baidu Inc. reported a smaller-than-expected revenue drop, alleviating concerns its internet search and artificial intelligence businesses are buckling under fierce competition.

The Beijing-based internet company said Tuesday that fourth-quarter revenue fell 2.4%, better than analysts’ estimates.

Chinese search engine giant Baidu reported a 2% drop in quarterly revenue, dragged down by a slowdown in the advertising business, though offset by gains from cloud AI. For the three months through December,

Shares of Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) slipped in Tuesday’s premarket session despite the Chinese search engine’s forecast-beating fiscal year 2024 fourth-quarter results. The negative stock reaction may have been due to weak advertising revenue.

Baidu CEO Robin Li said 2024 was a transformational year as the company pivots to AI, where it faces fresh competition from start-up DeepSeek.