Baidu ERNIE (百度文心一言)

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Alan D. Thompson
March 2023, updated 2024, 2025

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Summary

    • ERNIE is a multimodal model by Baidu. ERNIE stands for ‘Enhanced Representation from kNowledge IntEgration’. The Chinese name is 文心一言, or Wenxin Yiyan. – via MIT (16/Mar/2023).
    • 2022: Baidu spent total US$3.4 billion on research and development.
    • 650 companies have signed up to use ERNIE Bot (including Sina Finance and Baixin Bank), which can be implemented in a variety of applications such as searches, AI cloud, autonomous driving and in smart devices. – via WP (16/Mar/2023)
    • ERNIE Bot was released on 16/Mar/2023. Invitations to the event were written by ERNIE Bot (via Baidu).
    • ERNIE Bot = ERNIE Titan 260B + Plato-XL 11B.
  • Five major abilities:
      • Literary creation.
      • Commercial copywriting.
      • Mathematical logic calculation.
      • Chinese comprehension.
      • Multi-modal generation.

ERNIE Timeline

Papers

ERNIE 1.0 (2019): https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.09223
ERNIE 2.0 (2019): https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.12412
ERNIE 3.0 Titan 260B (2021): https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.12731
ERNIE-ViLG 2.0 (2022): https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.15257
ERNIE Bot (2023): Parameters not disclosed, based on ERNIE Titan 260B + Plato-XL 11B.
ERNIE 3.5 (2023): Retrieval capability only. Paper TBA.
ERNIE 4.0 (2023): Dense, >1T parameters. Paper TBA. Launch video with English dub.
ERNIE 4.0 Turbo (2024): Dense. Paper TBA.
ERNIE 4.5 (due 2025H1).
ERNIE 5 (due 2025H2).

China’s Baidu is set to launch the next iteration of its artificial intelligence model in the second half of 2025, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The new model, Ernie 5, will feature multimodal capabilities enabling it to process and convert between different formats including text, video, images and audio, CNBC reported earlier. (Reuters, 12/Feb/2025)

ERNIE Bot was trained on the Baidu Kunlun II AI Chip (equivalent to NVIDIA A100) produced by Samsung.

Demo

https://www.cnet.com/videos/baidu-unveils-ernie-ai-bots-multimodal-creation-capabilities/

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by Dr Alan D. Thompson · Be inside the lightning-fast AI revolution.
Informs research at Apple, Google, Microsoft · Bestseller in 147 countries.
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Alan D. Thompson is a world expert in artificial intelligence, advising everyone from Apple to the US Government on integrated AI. Throughout Mensa International’s history, both Isaac Asimov and Alan held leadership roles, each exploring the frontier between human and artificial minds. His landmark analysis of post-2020 AI—from his widely-cited Models Table to his regular intelligence briefing The Memo—has shaped how governments and Fortune 500s approach artificial intelligence. With popular tools like the Declaration on AI Consciousness, and the ASI checklist, Alan continues to illuminate humanity’s AI evolution. Technical highlights.

This page last updated: 17/Feb/2025. https://lifearchitect.ai/ernie/↑