On February 13th, the AI industry reached a major turning point.ERNIE Botcap (a poem)ChatGPTAlmost simultaneously announced that it would launch a free service, a move that not only triggered widespread concern in the industry, but also signaled a new stage of competition in the AI market.

Wenxin Ichiban: Full Free & Deep Search Features Online

Baidu's Wenshin Yiyin has announced that from 00:00 on April 1, 2025, it will be completely free to use. All PC and APP users will be able to experience the latest models of the Wenshin series, including features such as ultra-long document processing, specialized search enhancements, advanced AI drawing, and multilingual conversations.

In addition, Wenxin Yiyin has also launched the in-depth search function, which is equipped with powerful thinking planning and tool invocation capabilities, and is able to provide users with expert content responses and support multi-scenario tasks to realize multi-modal input and output. At present, users can already experience this function on the official website of Wenxin Yiyan, and the APP terminal will be online soon.

AI industry major turning point! Wenxin Yiyin and ChatGPT simultaneously announce free, Wenxin Yiyin goes live with deep search feature from now on

This move by Wenxin Yiyin is not a coincidence. With the continuous iterative upgrading of Wenxin's big model and the continuous decline in cost, Baidu has the ability to provide free services to more users. According to public data, as of November 2024, the user scale of Wenxin Yiyin has reached 430 million, with an average daily call volume of more than 1.5 billion, an increase of more than 30 times compared to 2023. Baidu plans to release its next-generation AI model, Ernie 5.0, in the second half of 2025, which will have significant enhancements in multimodal capabilities, which will further boost Wenxin Yiyin's competitiveness.

ChatGPT: Free version of GPT-5 for unlimited use

Meanwhile, OpenAI also announced in the early morning hours of February 13, 2025, that its free version of ChatGPT will have unlimited conversations using GPT-5 in standard intelligence settings.OpenAI plans to release GPT-4.5 in 2025(Orion model), which is the last non-thinking chain model.

OpenAI will then integrate the two main models, the GPT and the O-series, to create an entirely new system capable of automatically selecting between thinking and non-thinking functions for a wide range of tasks.GPT-5 will integrate multiple systems including the O3 model, which will no longer be available as a stand-alone model.

OpenAI的这一举措显然是对市场竞争的回应。此前，DeepSeek等新兴AI公司的崛起对行业格局产生了冲击，OpenAI通过免费开放GPT-5，旨在进一步巩固其在AI市场的领先地位。

Competition in the AI industry has reached a fever pitch

As technology continues to advance and costs decrease, more and more companies are entering the field, and the rise of emerging companies such as DeepSeek has brought tremendous pressure on traditional giants.DeepSeek has quickly attracted a large number of users with its highly efficient technology and innovative business model, and has become a "spoiler" in the industry. DeepSeek has become a "spoiler" in the industry with its efficient technology and innovative business model.

Against this background, the free strategy of Wenxin Yiyin and ChatGPT is not only a direct response to market competition, but also to attract more users and expand market share. The launch of the free service will enable more users to experience the powerful functions of AI technology, and will also promote the popularization and application of AI technology.

Wenxin Yiyin and ChatGPT's free strategy will have a profound impact on the market. First, it will make AI technology more popular, and more enterprises and individuals will be able to utilize AI technology to improve efficiency and innovation. Second, the launch of free services will intensify competition in the market, prompting other AI companies to adopt a similar strategy, further boosting the industry.

However, the free strategy may also bring some challenges. With the increase in the number of users, how to ensure service quality and prevent abuse will become an important issue that AI companies need to face. In addition, the launch of free services may also have an impact on the business model and profit model of AI companies, and how to realize profitability on the basis of free services will be an important issue to be solved in the future.

In the future, the AI industry will become more competitive. With the continuous progress of technology and the expansion of the market, AI companies will need to continuously innovate and optimize their services to meet the needs of users. At the same time, the popularization of AI technology will also bring more application scenarios and business opportunities to promote the continued development of the industry.