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Baidu Launches ERNIE 4.5 Turbo, ERNIE X1 Turbo and New Suite of AI Tools to Empower Developers and Supercharge AI Innovation

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Following the release of two models in mid-March, Baidu unveiled ERNIE 4.5 Turbo and ERNIE X1 Turbo today, which stand out for their multimodal capabilities, strong reasoning, and low costs. ERNIE 4.5 Turbo delivers faster responses while priced at 20% of ERNIE 4.5; ERNIE X1 Turbo, featuring enhanced capabilities, is half the price of ERNIE X1.In addition to the models, Baidu also unveiled an array of AI applications, including Xinxiang, a multi-agent collaboration app, enabling full task delivery from a single sentence prompt, as well as highly convincing digital humans.Baidu also announced an AI Open Initiative as well as the integration of MCP into some existing products to enable effortless experience for the developers to access and utilize Baidu’s suite of services.

WUHAN, China, April 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU and HKEX: 9888), a leading AI company with a strong internet foundation, today introduced a new suite of AI innovations at its annual developer conference Baidu Create 2025. At the event, Baidu co-founder and CEO Robin Li introduced ERNIE 4.5 Turbo and ERNIE X1 Turbo, the latest two models of the company, along with a series of AI applications and advancements, and committed to empowering developers to fully embrace MCP (Model Context Protocol).

“Our releases aim to empower developers to build the best applications — without having to worry about model capability, costs, or development tools,” Li said in his keynote, addressing an audience of over 5,000 developers and tech enthusiasts. “Without practical applications, neither advanced chips nor sophisticated models hold value. While there will be a multitude of models, it is the applications that will truly dominate in the future. Applications are where true power lies,” Li added.

ERNIE 4.5 Turbo and ERNIE X1 Turbo: Faster and Cheaper

Baidu introduced ERNIE 4.5 Turbo and ERNIE X1 Turbo at Create 2025, both of which feature enhanced multimodal capabilities, strong reasoning, low costs, and are available for users to access on ERNIE Bot now free of charge. The two models were launched to address common pain points in the industry, including single-modality, high-hallucination, slow-response and high-price, Li noted.

ERNIE X1 Turbo is an upgraded deep thinking reasoning model. Featuring a more advanced chain of thought, stronger deep thinking capabilities, and further enhanced multimodal and tool invocation abilities, it excels in Q&A, literary creation, and logical reasoning, outperforming DeepSeek R1 as well as the latest version of V3.

ERNIE X1 Turbo offers improved performance while being priced at half of ERNIE X1, making it only 25% of the price of DeepSeek R1. The input price is RMB 1 per million tokens, and the output price is RMB 4 per million tokens.

ERNIE 4.5 Turbo demonstrates overall progress in hallucination reduction, logical reasoning, and coding abilities, with faster response. The multimodal capabilities of ERNIE 4.5 Turbo are on par with GPT-4.1 and superior to GPT-4o across multiple benchmarks. For ERNIE 4.5 Turbo, the input price is only RMB 0.8 per million tokens, and the output price is RMB 3.2 per million tokens, 80% off the price of ERNIE 4.5, 0.2% of GPT-4.5 and 40% of DeepSeek V3.

Both ERNIE 4.5 Turbo and X1 Turbo have further enhanced their multimodal capabilities. “Multimodality will become a standard feature of future foundation models. The market for pure text-based models will shrink, while the market for multimodal models will continue to grow,” Li predicted in his keynote.

The two models follow the launch of ERNIE 4.5, the company’s first native multimodal foundation model, and ERNIE X1, a multimodal deep-thinking reasoning model capable of tool use, both of which received strong market recognition after their debut on March 16, 2025.

AI Application Frontrunners: Highly Convincing Digital Humans and Multi-agent Tool Xinxiang

The highly convincing digital human is one of the key applications that exemplify the capabilities of multimodality. “AI digital humans are one of the most exciting breakthrough applications in 2025,” Li said in his speech.

Li introduced Baidu’s highly convincing AI digital human, which features ultra-realistic voice and appearance, as well as more professional content-generation and more flexible interactions. Baidu’s Huiboxing, a digital human livestream platform powered by AI, now offers a feature to create a digital human in one click where users can upload a video as short as two minutes before the system can generate a personalized digital human ready to go live.

Over the past year, agents have transitioned from a niche concept to a core field of AI applications. Notably, coding agents have rapidly gained traction, with Baidu offering tools like Comate for code assistance and Miaoda, a no-code platform for multi-agent collaboration. In March, Miaoda was made available to the public, allowing users to generate applications with a single sentence.

“There are nearly 30 million programmers and 8 billion people globally. As technologies become more accessible, everyone can possess the capabilities of a programmer,” said Li.

At the event, Baidu also officially released the multi-agent collaboration app Xinxiang, a “general super agent” capable of solving complex problems for users in a one-stop manner. Currently, Xinxiang covers 200 task types in scenarios such as knowledge-analysis, travel-planning, studying, and office work. In the future, Baidu plans to expand the number of task types to over 100,000.

Li also introduced Cangzhou OS, the first content operating system jointly launched by Baidu Wenku and Baidu Drive. Powered by Cangzhou OS, Baidu Drive has launched AI Note, the industry’s first multimodal AI note-taking tool. Users can generate quick notes, mind maps, and quizzes from watching educational videos with just a single click.

To date, Baidu Wenku’s AI features have amassed 40 million paying users and 97 million monthly active users (MAUs), while Baidu Drive’s AI features serve more than 80 million MAUs.

Building a Thriving Ecosystem: AI Open Initiative, MCP and ERNIE Cup

Addressing the booming AI application market, Baidu introduced a series of initiatives aimed at supporting AI developers in adapting to the emerging trend.

Baidu Search Open Platform has launched the AI Open Initiative (sai.baidu.com), providing developers of AI agents, H5 pages, mini programs, and standalone apps with traffic and monetization opportunities, as well as access to the latest AI services through a diversified content and service distribution system.

Also at the event, Baidu announced full support to enable developers to adopt Model Context Protocol (MCP). Li compared MCP to installing a “universal socket” for AI — enabling seamless connections between external services and large models through standardized interfaces. Live demos showcased the integration of MCP across a series of Baidu proprietary services, including the Baidu Qianfan Foundation Model Platform, Baidu Search, e-commerce, and Baidu Drive.

To further support innovation in AI, Baidu announced the third ERNIE Cup Innovation Challenge at Create 2025. This year’s challenge will double the prize amounts from previous years, offering up to RMB 70 million in investment for outstanding projects.

At the same time, Baidu announced that over the next five years, the company will scale up its efforts to cultivate an additional 10 million AI talents for society.

Baidu Create is Baidu’s annual tech event for the developer community, serving as a platform for technology launches and knowledge exchange. This year’s conference centered around the theme of “Models Lead, APPs Rule” and featured six sub-forums on subjects such as MCP, agents, DeepSeek and more.

About Baidu

Founded in 2000, Baidu’s mission is to make the complicated world simpler through technology. Baidu is a leading AI company with strong internet foundation, trading on the NASDAQ under “BIDU” and HKEX under “9888.” One Baidu ADS represents eight Class A ordinary shares.

Media Contact
intlcomm@baidu.com

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SOURCE Baidu, Inc.

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“Jacksepticeye” Announces Thankmas in partnership with Make-A-Wish® to Grant Life-Changing Wishes for Children with Critical Illnesses

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Beloved creator-led fundraising initiative returns with Make-A-Wish as beneficiary and an expanded community campaign leading up to December’s Thankmas livestream

PHOENIX, July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Creator Seán “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin today announced that Make-A-Wish will be the beneficiary of Thankmas 2026, the annual fundraising initiative that unites creators, brands and online communities to support charitable causes.

This year, Thankmas also includes Wishmas, a six-month season of giving that gives creators and fans more time to make an impact for children with critical illnesses. Through fundraising, livestreaming and digital content, communities can come together throughout the summer and fall before culminating at the annual Thankmas livestream in December.

The campaign is hosted on Tiltify, the creator fundraising platform that powers Thankmas, giving creators and communities the tools to start a fundraiser in minutes and turn any type of content into wish-granting impact. Supporters can learn more, donate or start a fundraiser at thankmas.tiltify.com.

For children facing a critical illness, a wish can provide hope, strength and a sense of normalcy. Research shows that wishes can build the emotional and physical strength needed to help children fight their illness and improve quality of life. But for every wish Make-A-Wish grants, two more children are still waiting for a wish.

“A wish is more than a moment. It creates lasting memories, brings families together and reminds them that joy is possible even in life’s most difficult moments,” said Leslie Motter, president and CEO of Make-A-Wish America. ” Wishmas is what happens when the incredible energy of the Thankmas community is focused on granting wishes. Every fundraiser, every livestream and every donation helps bring hope and joy to more children and families.”

A longtime supporter of Make-A-Wish, Seán has helped grant more than 30 wishes and has championed wish granting through his content and charitable fundraising efforts.

For wish alum Billy, meeting Seán was life-changing. Living with a critical illness that requires more than three hours of daily medical care, Billy said Seán’s videos helped distract him from the pain and gave him something to look forward to. During his wish, Billy and Seán bonded over comics, space, movies and gaming, and Seán encouraged Billy’s dream of becoming a creator. When Billy’s mother said the experience had “made his year,” Billy quietly added, “It made my life!”

“Every time that I’ve had the honor of being a ‘wish granter,’ I’ve witnessed firsthand the one-of-a-kind impact that Make-A-Wish has on the kids and families who need it,” said McLoughlin. “The Thankmas community has shown time and again that creators and our audiences can make a real difference in the world, so as we come back this year with Wishmas, we’re bringing that same energy to help grant wishes for children facing critical illnesses. I can’t wait to see what we accomplish as a global force for good.”

Since launching in 2017, Thankmas has united creators and their communities to raise millions of dollars for charitable causes around the world. Following a pause in 2025, Thankmas returns this year with Make-A-Wish as its beneficiary and an expanded six-month fundraising effort, known as Wishmas, designed to give creators and supporters more time to participate and drive impact.

“Creators have changed what fundraising looks like. When someone a fan trusts asks them to be part of something, they show up, and they bring their friends with them,” said Michael Wasserman, CEO and co-founder of Tiltify. “Thankmas has proven that year after year, and extending it into a six-month Wishmas season means more creators of every size can rally their communities to grant wishes for kids who are waiting on one.”

Participants can contribute through livestreams, fundraising events and digital content, helping Make-A-Wish move closer to its vision of granting the wish of every eligible child.

The campaign will culminate in December when audiences can tune in to Seán’s YouTube channel on December 5, 2026 for a special Thankmas livestream event. Previous participants include Jack Black, Markiplier and Bella Poarch, and this year’s full lineup will be announced prior to the event.

Since 1980, Make-A-Wish has granted more than 650,000 wishes worldwide. To learn more, start a fundraiser or make a donation, visit thankmas.tiltify.com.

About Make-A-Wish®
Make-A-Wish creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. Founded in Phoenix, Arizona, Make-A-Wish is the #1 most trusted nonprofit operating locally in all 50 states throughout the U.S. Together with generous donors, supporters, staff and more than 20,000 volunteers across the country, Make-A-Wish delivers hope and joy to children and their families when they need it most. Make-A-Wish aims to bring the power of wishing to every child with a critical illness because wish experiences can help improve emotional and physical health. Since 1980, Make-A-Wish has granted more than 650,000 wishes worldwide; more than 400,000 wishes in the U.S. and its territories alone. For more information about Make-A-Wish America, visit wish.org.

About Seán “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin
Sean McLoughlin, known by fans as Jacksepticeye, is a creator, entrepreneur and philanthropist. His YouTube channel has grown to more than 31 million subscribers and nearly 15 billion views since its launch in 2013, with a global audience of more than 48.5 million followers across platforms. McLoughlin is widely recognized for his commitment to charitable giving and community-driven fundraising. Through initiatives such as Thankmas and other charity livestreams, he has raised more than $29 million for organizations supporting children, mental health and global relief efforts.

About Tiltify
Tiltify is the essential fundraising infrastructure connecting creators and causes at scale. With enterprise-grade technology, interactive engagement tools, and unmatched access to next-generation donors, Tiltify powers campaigns for more than 8,000 nonprofits and over 1,000,000 creators worldwide. Learn more at tiltify.com

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is Wishmas?
Wishmas is a community-powered fundraising campaign created in partnership with Make-A-Wish® and Seán “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin. The campaign invites creators, brands and audiences to fundraise, livestream and share content to help grant life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.

Who does Make-A-Wish serve?
Make-A-Wish creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses, supporting children and families at many points along a child’s medical journey, including during some of the most challenging moments.

Why are wishes important?
Research shows that wishes can help build the emotional and physical strength children need to cope with a critical illness, improving quality of life during treatment.

What need does Wishmas address?
For every wish Make-A-Wish grants, two more children with critical illnesses still need support. Wishmas helps expand fundraising efforts to reach more eligible children and bring the hope and joy of a wish to more families.

How can people get involved?
Supporters can donate, start a fundraiser or participate in livestreams and digital content through the Wishmas platform at thankmas.tiltify.com

How long will the campaign run?
Wishmas is designed as a six-month campaign, culminating in a Thankmas livestream event later in the year.

What is Thankmas?
Thankmas is an annual creator-led fundraising initiative associated with Jacksepticeye. Wishmas builds on that community momentum to expand fundraising across a longer time period.

How many wishes does Make-A-Wish grant?
Make-A-Wish grants more than 40 wishes every day, on average, in the United States and its territories. 

How long has Make-A-Wish been granting wishes?
Since 1980, Make-A-Wish has granted more than 650,000 wishes worldwide, including more than 400,000 in the U.S. and its territories.

Who makes wishes possible?
Wishes are made possible by generous donors, supporters, corporate partners, staff and nearly 20,000 volunteers across the United States and its territories.

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SOURCE MAKE-A-WISH AMERICA

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First Public Hydrogen Authority Launches Landmark Solicitation for Low-Carbon Hydrogen Fuel

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Public Agencies, Industry, And Clean Energy Partners Unite To Accelerate California’s Hydrogen Economy

LANCASTER, Calif., July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The First Public Hydrogen Authority (FPH2) has officially launched a competitive solicitation for low-carbon hydrogen fuel, marking a major step toward expanding reliable, affordable hydrogen supply for California’s growing fleet of zero-emission buses, trains, heavy-duty vehicles, and other public-sector applications.

The procurement is designed to aggregate demand across public agencies and other participating partners, creating a stronger, market signal for hydrogen suppliers while helping agencies secure competitively priced fuel for long-term operations.

Developed through extensive collaboration with transit agencies, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), procurement specialists, and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), the solicitation reflects a shared commitment to accelerating California’s transition to clean transportation.

“Building a successful hydrogen economy requires collaboration,” said FPH2 Chairman R. Rex Parris. “We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who contributed to this effort. This solicitation is about moving projects from planning to reality, expanding access to clean hydrogen, and helping California meet its zero-emission goals while creating cleaner air and stronger communities for generations to come.”

The Request for Proposals (RFP) invites qualified suppliers to provide low-carbon hydrogen fuel for public agencies and other participating end users transitioning to zero-emission operations. Proposals are due August 19, 2026 at 10:00 AM PT.

As California’s public hydrogen aggregator, FPH2 is helping address one of the industry’s greatest challenges, fragmented demand. By bringing agencies together through a coordinated procurement, FPH2 creates greater purchasing certainty for suppliers while improving market access for public agencies.

Proposals will be evaluated based on supplier qualifications, clean hydrogen production capabilities, reliability, safety, cost competitiveness, and the ability to provide long-term value to participating agencies.

The solicitation reflects broad support from public agencies, industry, labor, academia, and clean energy organizations working together to build a hydrogen ecosystem that is practical, scalable, and responsive to the needs of California’s communities.

FPH2 extends its sincere appreciation to the organizations that collaborated in the development of this solicitation, including Fresno Area Express, North County Transit District, City of Industry, City of Lancaster, Fenix Marine Services, LA/OC Building & Construction Trades Council, Renewable Hydrogen Alliance, Clean Energy Institute, Green Hydrogen Coalition, California Hydrogen Business Council, Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership, and CALSTART. Their collaboration demonstrates the broad coalition working together to advance California’s clean hydrogen future.

Qualified vendors can access RFP 01-26 and submit proposals electronically through https://www.firstpublich2.com/procurement.

About First Public Hydrogen Authority

First Public Hydrogen Authority (FPH₂) is the nation’s first public hydrogen authority, a California Joint Powers Authority founded by the City of Lancaster and the City of Industry, with member agencies including the Cities of Montebello, Shafter, and Fresno. FPH₂ serves as a neutral aggregator, coordinator, and counterparty, bringing affordable, clean hydrogen to public agencies and other end users. By helping connect hydrogen producers with public and private end users, FPH₂ leverages centralized procurement, planning, and market coordination.

Learn more at www.firstpublich2.com.

Media Contact
Alexus Merino
Managing Director, First Public Hydrogen
hydrogen@fph2.org

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SOURCE First Public Hydrogen Authority

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Citizen Unveils a Limited-Edition Spider-Man Timepiece Featuring Original Artwork by Marvel Illustrator Adam Kubert

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Released ahead of Spider-Man Day, the collectible design brings Spider-Man’s iconic comic-book world to the wrist

NEW YORK, July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Citizen unveils its latest collaboration with Marvel: a limited-edition Spider-Man timepiece inspired by the character’s unmistakable comic-book style and featuring exclusive original artwork created for Citizen by acclaimed Marvel comics illustrator Adam Kubert.

Released ahead of Spider-Man Day on August 1, and as anticipation continues to build around Spider-Man’s return to theaters , the launch taps into the continued cultural momentum of Spider-Man across film, comics, merchandise and more. Leveraging one of Marvel’s most beloved Super Heroes, the collaboration reflects the growing intersection of storytelling, collectible culture and elevated watchmaking.

The collaboration also arrives during a milestone year for Citizen, as the brand celebrates the 50th anniversary of its proprietary Eco-Drive technology — reinforcing Citizen’s ongoing focus on innovation, artistry and cultural relevance through character-driven collaborations.

Known for his long-standing contributions to Marvel, Kubert designed an original dial composition exclusively for Citizen, translating Spider-Man’s signature movement and style into collectible design details. Inspired by a comic book panel brought to life, the watch features an embossed Spider-Man swinging through a stylized cityscape, elevated by luminous web detailing that adds depth and dimension to the scene.

“I wanted the artwork to capture the energy and movement that make Spider-Man instantly recognizable,” said Adam Kubert, Marvel Comics Illustrator. “The goal was to create something that felt rooted in the visual language of the comics while translating naturally into a watch design — from the sense of motion to the small details fans will recognize. It was exciting to bring that world into a new format.”

Additional details reward fans with nods pulled directly from Spider-Man lore. The iconic sound of Spider-Man’s web-slinging action — “THWIP” — appears on both the dial and caseback, transforming one of the character’s most recognizable comic elements into a hidden collectible detail.

The watch is housed in a bold 43mm gray ion-plated stainless steel case and bracelet, balancing graphic impact with everyday wearability. Finished with a three-hand movement and date display, the release also includes a matching collectible pin designed to complement the watch and complete the collector experience. Limited to just 1,500 pieces worldwide, the collaboration marks a highly collectible release for both Marvel fans and watch enthusiasts alike.

For more information, visit citizenwatch.com.

About Citizen Watch
CITIZEN WATCH is a true manufacture d’horlogerie with the capabilities to carry out the entire watch manufacturing process in-house, from creating a watch’s individual components to its final assembly and adjustment. The company operates in more than 140 countries and regions around the world. Since its founding in 1918, CITIZEN has held the belief of “Better Starts Now” — that is, no matter who you are and what you do, it is always possible to make something better, and now is the time to start doing it. Sharing this belief, we began making mechanical watches, invented and improved technologies and explored the future of watches such as our proprietary light-powered Eco-Drive technology. Powering varies by light intensity. CITIZEN is a registered trademark.

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SOURCE Citizen Watch

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