Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc announced on Sunday night that it will integrate DeepSeek's large language model into its search engine and proprietary Ernie model, as part of broader push to diversify users' search experience.

The company also revealed plans to launch its next-generation AI model, Ernie 4.5, in the coming months. This new version of the model will be made open-source by the end of June, following DeepSeek's open-source approach.

Additionally, Baidu's Ernie Bot will be available for free starting April 1, featuring upgraded technology and reduced costs. The AI service will be accessible at no cost to all users on both desktop and mobile platforms, the company said.

The announcements came as AI startup DeepSeek took the world by surprise with the release of its high-performance AI model, R1, at significantly lower costs than its foreign counterparts.