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Baidu

Since the launch of Baidu Search in 2010, Baidu established its Natural Language Processing department to initially research internet machine translation technology. In 2013, it released Baidu Voice Assistant, followed by the launch of the smart search robot "Xiaodu" in 2014, and smart customer service in 2017. Through long-term planning and development, Baidu has built a comprehensive language and knowledge technology framework, including knowledge graphs, language understanding and generation technologies, as well as application systems supported by these technologies, such as intelligent search, machine translation, dialogue systems, intelligent writing, and deep question answering.

On March 16, 2023, Baidu released the generative artificial intelligence LLM "Wenxin Yiyan." As a new member of the Wenxin LLM family, Wenxin Yiyan was developed based on the Wenxin knowledge-enhanced LLM ERNIE and the dialogue LLM PLATO. Wenxin Yiyan includes six core technology modules:

  1. Supervised fine-tuning;
  2. Reinforcement learning based on human feedback;
  3. Prompts;
  4. Knowledge enhancement;
  5. Retrieval enhancement;
  6. Dialogue enhancement.

The first three types of technologies are applied in currently popular dialogue LLMs like ChatGPT, while the last three types represent Baidu's innovative reinvention based on its technological accumulation, collectively forming the technical foundation of the model.

In May 2023, Baidu's Wenxin LLM version 3.5 became available for internal testing, achieving breakthroughs in foundational model upgrades, fine-tuning technology innovations, knowledge enhancement, logical reasoning enhancement, and plugin mechanisms, resulting in improved effectiveness and efficiency. On August 31, 2023, Wenxin Yiyan was fully opened to the public. On September 13, Baidu launched the Wenxin Yiyan plugin ecosystem platform "Lingjing Matrix." During the period leading up to the Baidu World 2023 conference, Wenxin Yiyan's user base reached 45 million, with 54,000 developers, 4,300 scenarios, 825 applications, and over 500 plugins within just over 40 days.

On October 17, 2023, Baidu officially released the Wenxin LLM version 4.0 at the Baidu World Conference. Compared to the previous version 3.5, it has the following advantages:

  1. Stronger model capabilities and image generation abilities. According to tests, the Wenxin LLM version 4.0 shows significant improvements in understanding, generation, logic, and memory functions, with optimized model performance.
  2. Support for a rich array of API plugins, enabling functionalities such as code writing, content refinement, design, and drawing.

Wenxin Yiyan has become the first domestic LLM product charging for access to end-users. The professional version of Wenxin Yiyan offers two subscription models: individual subscription and joint membership. In the individual subscription model, members pay 59.9 yuan per month, with a discounted price of 49.9 yuan for continuous monthly subscriptions; members can use both Wenxin LLM versions 3.5 and 4.0, while non-members can only access the free version 3.5. In the joint model, users pay 99 yuan per month, gaining access to all functionalities of the individual subscription model and obtaining silver membership status for Wenxin Yiyan, which includes features like AI image editing and modification.