Zhipu AI Launches Free AI Agent, Intensifying Competition in China's AI Market

China's Zhipu Offers Free AI Agent in Riposte to DeepSeek, Manus

China's Zhipu is making its new AI agent free to use as domestic competition to build emerging artificial intelligence technologies heats up. The Beijing-based startup on Monday unveiled AutoGLM, an artificial intelligence agent that can conduct deep research. The AI agent has outperformed OpenAI's GPT-4o and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet when accessed via a web browser, Zhipu Chief Executive Officer Zhang Peng said during a presentation at an industry event in Beijing. The agent is now available for preview, he added.

China's Zhipu AI launches free AI agent, intensifying domestic tech race

BEIJING, March 31 (Reuters) - Chinese artificial intelligence startup Zhipu AI unveiled a free AI agent on Monday, joining a wave of similar launches in China's increasingly competitive AI market. The product, called AutoGLM Rumination, can perform deep research as well as tasks including web searches, travel planning, and research report writing, CEO Zhang Peng said at a lunch event in Beijing. The agent is powered by Zhipu's proprietary models, including its reasoning model GLM-Z1-Air and foundation model GLM-4-Air-0414. The company claims GLM-Z1-Air matches rival DeepSeek's R1 in performance while running up to eight times faster and requiring only one-thirtieth of the computing resources. AI agents are systems designed to make decisions and execute a range of tasks autonomously. The launch follows a surge in Chinese AI product releases after DeepSeek shook the industry earlier this year with a model that it said operated at substantially lower costs than U.S. rivals. It also comes weeks after competitor Manus sparked interest with what it marketed as the world's first general AI agent. While Manus charges users up to $199 monthly, Zhipu's AutoGLM Rumination will be available free of charge through the company's official channels, including its GLM model website and mobile app. Zhipu AI, founded in 2019 as a spinoff from a Tsinghua University laboratory, has emerged as one of China's leading AI startups. The company, which developed the GLM series of models, claims its latest large language model GLM4 outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4 on several benchmarks. The startup made headlines earlier this month after securing three consecutive rounds of government-backed funding in a single month. The most recent investment came from the city of Chengdu, which injected 300 million yuan ($41.5 million) into the company. Reporting by Liam Mo and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kate Mayberry Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence

Chinese Startup Launches Free AI Agent Powered by Models 8x Faster than DeepSeek-R1

The tool can perform deep research tasks, generate detailed reports, and help users plan various activities and tasks. Zhipu AI, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, unveiled a new AI agent called AutoLM Rumination on Monday, Reuters reported. The tool can perform deep research tasks, generate detailed reports, and help users plan various activities and tasks -- all for free. The AI agent is powered by the company's proprietary models, which are claimed to be as good as DeepSeek R1. The report also noted that the company claims its model operates eight times faster while using only one-thirtieth of the resources. Recently, the startup secured $69 million in Series D funding, just weeks following a $137 million funding round. Zhipu is currently valued at $2.74 billion, and it has also been previously backed by giant companies Tencent and Alibaba. The startup, on multiple occasions, has been backed by Chinese state-owned entities. In January, the US commerce department placed Zhipu and its subsidiaries on the export control entity list, preventing them from obtaining US-made components. The announcement comes just weeks after Manus AI, an AI agent from a Chinese company, surprised many in the AI ecosystem. This "general-purpose AI agent" outperformed OpenAI's deep research tool on the GAIA benchmark, which tests AI agents on solving real-world problems. Manus AI is now available for a monthly fee of $39, along with an upgraded plan that costs $199 per month. The AI ecosystem in China is currently experiencing unprecedented growth. Giants like Alibaba and Tencent are unveiling new AI models at an extraordinary pace. Recently, Alibaba introduced QwQ 32B, an AI model with 32 billion parameters. However, it is reported to achieve performance comparable to DeepSeek-R1, which has 671 billion parameters (with 37 billion activated parameters). The model also surpasses OpenAI's o1-mini in several benchmarks related to code, mathematical reasoning, and general problem-solving tasks. While DeepSeek caused quite a storm in the markets a few months ago, the company doesn't plan to stop. The company updated the DeepSeek-V3 model, and the DeepSeek V3-0324 now ranks highest in benchmarks among all non-reasoning models. Reuters also recently reported that DeepSeek plans to release R2 "as early as possible". The company initially intended to launch it in early May but is now contemplating an earlier timeline.

China's Zhipu AI launches free AI agent, intensifying domestic tech race

Chinese AI startup Zhipu AI launched AutoGLM Rumination, a free AI agent for research, web searches, travel planning, and report writing. Powered by its proprietary models, it claims faster performance with lower resource usage than rivals. Zhipu AI, backed by government funding, aims to rival global AI leaders.Chinese artificial intelligence startup Zhipu AI unveiled a free AI agent on Monday, joining a wave of similar launches in China's increasingly competitive AI market. The product, called AutoGLM Rumination, can perform deep research as well as tasks including web searches, travel planning, and research report writing, CEO Zhang Peng said at a lunch event in Beijing. The agent is powered by Zhipu's proprietary models, including its reasoning model GLM-Z1-Air and foundation model GLM-4-Air-0414. The company claims GLM-Z1-Air matches rival DeepSeek's R1 in performance while running up to eight times faster and requiring only one-thirtieth of the computing resources. AI agents are systems designed to make decisions and execute a range of tasks autonomously. The launch follows a surge in Chinese AI product releases after DeepSeek shook the industry earlier this year with a model that it said operated at substantially lower costs than U.S. rivals. It also comes weeks after competitor Manus sparked interest with what it marketed as the world's first general AI agent. While Manus charges users up to $199 monthly, Zhipu's AutoGLM Rumination will be available free of charge through the company's official channels, including its GLM model website and mobile app. Zhipu AI, founded in 2019 as a spinoff from a Tsinghua University laboratory, has emerged as one of China's leading AI startups. The company, which developed the GLM series of models, claims its latest large language model GLM4 outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4 on several benchmarks. The startup made headlines earlier this month after securing three consecutive rounds of government-backed funding in a single month. The most recent investment came from the city of Chengdu, which injected 300 million yuan ($41.5 million) into the company.

China's Zhipu AI launches free AI agent, intensifying domestic tech race

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese artificial intelligence startup Zhipu AI unveiled a free AI agent on Monday, joining a wave of similar launches in China's increasingly competitive AI market. The product, called AutoGLM Rumination, can perform deep research as well as tasks including web searches, travel planning, and research report writing, CEO Zhang Peng said at a lunch event in Beijing. The agent is powered by Zhipu's proprietary models, including its reasoning model GLM-Z1-Air and foundation model GLM-4-Air-0414. The company claims GLM-Z1-Air matches rival DeepSeek's R1 in performance while running up to eight times faster and requiring only one-thirtieth of the computing resources. AI agents are systems designed to make decisions and execute a range of tasks autonomously. The launch follows a surge in Chinese AI product releases after DeepSeek shook the industry earlier this year with a model that it said operated at substantially lower costs than U.S. rivals. It also comes weeks after competitor Manus sparked interest with what it marketed as the world's first general AI agent. While Manus charges users up to $199 monthly, Zhipu's AutoGLM Rumination will be available free of charge through the company's official channels, including its GLM model website and mobile app. Zhipu AI, founded in 2019 as a spinoff from a Tsinghua University laboratory, has emerged as one of China's leading AI startups. The company, which developed the GLM series of models, claims its latest large language model GLM4 outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4 on several benchmarks. The startup made headlines earlier this month after securing three consecutive rounds of government-backed funding in a single month. The most recent investment came from the city of Chengdu, which injected 300 million yuan ($41.5 million) into the company. (Reporting by Liam Mo and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kate Mayberry)