China's Baidu Launches Advanced AI Models

AI is evolving at an unprecedented pace, with companies pushing the boundaries of innovation. Baidu's latest breakthroughs—ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1—offer cutting-edge multimodal reasoning at half the cost of competitors, making advanced AI more affordable. With ERNIE Bot now free for individual users, Baidu is bringing powerful AI to the masses, ensuring greater accessibility and wider adoption.

Meanwhile, Mistral has introduced Mistral Small 3.1, an advanced open-source multimodal AI model with 24 billion parameters, setting new standards for performance. With support for multilingual tasks, a massive 128k-token context window, and lightning-fast inference speeds, it outperforms competitors like Gemma 3 and GPT-4o Mini. Optimized for a range of applications, from conversational AI to image-based customer support, it runs efficiently on consumer hardware, making state-of-the-art AI more accessible than ever.

Not to be left behind, Zoom is revolutionizing workplace efficiency with its new agentic AI features. AI-powered assistants now handle tasks like calendar management, meeting summaries, and content creation, while industry-specific solutions streamline workflows for professionals in healthcare, education, and beyond. With AI Studio enabling customized virtual agents, Zoom is paving the way for a smarter, more productive digital workspace. The future of AI-driven collaboration is here!

Let’s explore how these AI breakthroughs are shaping the future—making technology smarter, more accessible, and more impactful than ever!

Baidu Unveils ERNIE 4.5 and X1: AI Innovation at Half the Cost

Baidu has recently unveiled ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1, marking significant strides in AI technology. ERNIE X1, a deep-thinking reasoning model with multimodal capabilities, matches the performance of DeepSeek R1 at half the cost, offering a cost-effective solution for complex AI tasks. ERNIE 4.5 represents Baidu's latest multimodal foundation model, enhancing the company's AI capabilities. In a move to broaden accessibility, Baidu has made its AI chatbot ERNIE Bot free for individual users, providing access to these advanced models through its official website. This release underscores Baidu's commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI and making advanced technology more accessible to the public.

Mistral Small 3.1: The Next-Gen Multimodal AI Powerhouse!

Mistral Small 3.1, announced on March 17, 2025, is an advanced open-source AI model designed for multimodal, multilingual tasks. With 24 billion parameters, it offers state-of-the-art performance in its class, surpassing competitors like Gemma 3 and GPT-4o Mini. Key features include improved text generation, multimodal understanding, multilingual support across diverse languages, and a context window of up to 128k tokens. The model delivers fast inference speeds of 150 tokens per second and is lightweight enough to run on devices like an RTX 4090 or a Mac with 32GB RAM. Released under the Apache 2.0 license, Mistral Small 3.1 supports applications such as conversational AI, document verification, diagnostics, image-based customer support, and function calling. It is available for download on Hugging Face and accessible via Mistral AI’s API platforms like Google Cloud Vertex AI and NVIDIA NIM.

Zoom Unleashes Agentic AI: Effortless Productivity, Real Results

Zoom Communications has unveiled its latest AI advancements, introducing agentic AI skills and agents for its AI Companion across the Zoom platform. These updates enhance productivity, collaboration, and customer experiences by enabling reasoning, memory, and task orchestration for seamless execution. New features include AI-driven calendar management, clip generation, writing assistance, and customizable virtual agents through AI Studio. Specialized solutions like Zoom Workplace for Clinicians and Education streamline workflows and improve efficiency in industry-specific contexts. Additional innovations include live meeting notes, voicemail summaries, and advanced quality management for contact centers. Zoom AI Companion remains free for paid users, while add-ons like custom agents are available at additional costs. These updates reflect Zoom's commitment to delivering an AI-first work platform that strengthens human connections and drives efficiency across industries.

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Top AI Products from this week

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This week in AI

• Sesame AI: A Leap in Voice Tech Sesame introduces lifelike AI companions, Maya and Miles, designed for natural, engaging conversations. Paired with lightweight eyewear, they redefine human-computer interaction for daily life.

• BotQ Factory Launch - Figure unveils BotQ, a high-volume humanoid robot factory. It aims for 12,000 robots/year and uses robots to build robots, boosting production and efficiency!

• AI2's OLMo 2 Open & Powerful - AI2 releases OLMo 2 32B, a fully open-source AI model that beats GPT-3.5 on key benchmarks. Promotes collaboration & accessibility in AI research!

• Roblox AI Cube 3D - Roblox releases Cube 3D, its open-source generative AI model for 3D objects. Beta mesh generation API launches this week in Studio. 3D creation gets easier!