Baidu Launches Xinxiang AI Agent for Android, Promising Enhanced Efficiency Over Chatbots

Baidu launches AI agent Xinxiang for Android platform, iOS version under review

BEIJING, April 23 (Reuters) - Chinese search engine giant Baidu launched on Tuesday an AI agent Xinxiang, which it said can help users run tasks such as information analysis and plan travel more efficiently than using a chatbot service. Xinxiang is currently only available on Android smartphones, with an iOS version still under review, the company said. Reporting by Che Pan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Himani Sarkar Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Technology Brenda Goh Thomson Reuters Brenda Goh is Reuters' Shanghai bureau chief and oversees coverage of corporates in China. Brenda joined Reuters as a trainee in London in 2010 and has reported stories from over a dozen countries.

Baidu Reportedly Launches Xinxiang AI Agent for Android Smartphones

The AI tool is said to be able to plan and share travel itineraries Baidu reportedly made its artificial intelligence (AI) agent Xinxiang available for Android devices on Wednesday. The Chinese tech giant is pitching its mobile-focused agentic tool as an upgrade over AI-powered chatbots in surfacing and analysing information. The app is currently available on Android smartphones in China, however, it is unclear if the company will introduce the AI agent outside the country. An iOS version of the agent is said to be under review and could be released in the coming weeks. Reuters reports that Baidu has launched Xinxiang for Android devices in China. While the Google Play store is not available in the country, users can download and install the app from app marketplaces such as Tencent Myapp, Huawei AppGallery, and the Baidu Mobile Assistant. The app is said to be free to install, and it is unclear whether it has in-app purchases or a premium subscription tier. The publication says it can perform tasks such as analysing information and planning travel, but the full set of features is not known. Additionally, the mentioned features are not typically considered agentic functions. AI agents are essentially those systems that can autonomously perform tasks and take actions by connecting with other software or hardware components. However, it is possible that the AI agent can access the users' files and other internal data autonomously to curate personalised and in-depth responses. Baidu reportedly claims that Xinxiang can help users more efficiently than an AI-powered chatbot. While the Android app is now available to download, it is said that an iOS version of the agent is awaiting App Store review. Once the Cupertino-based iPhone maker gives approval, Baidu is expected to launch Xinxiang on iOS. The AI agent arrives a month after Baidu released the flagship-grade Ernie 4.5 AI model and the reasoning-focused Ernie X1 model. The former is a natively multimodal large language model (LLM) and can understand text, images, audio, and videos. Its contextual awareness is also said to have been enhanced. On the other hand, Ernie X1 comes with support for tool use.