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Baidu is making its AI assistant ERNIE Bot free to use starting on April 1


With the rivals such as DeepSeek seeing rapid user adoption, Baidu is lifting the paywall on its AI assistant ERNIE Bot.

While Baidu was one of the first major Chinese companies to deploy its own AI chatbot amid the rise of ChatGPT, ERNIE is said to have struggled to find widespread adoption. By contrast, Reuters reports that domestic rivals such as the Doubao chatbot from ByteDance and upstart DeepSeek (which offers its AI assistant for free) have seen stronger user adoption, according to a third-party data tracker. The Galaxy Watch 7 is a capable companion for Samsung phones with an accessible Health app, reliable activity tracking and zippy performance.

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