Baidu’s founder has said demand for the type of text-based models developed by generative AI sensation DeepSeek is “shrinking”, as his search group seeks to reestablish itself as an artificial intelligence leader in China. 

In a striking criticism of the limitations of China’s AI darling, Robin Li told Baidu’s developer conference on Friday that there were constraints to models like DeepSeek’s that only generate text-based content. 

“The market for text models is shrinking,” Li said, as he released two new multimodal models — Ernie 4.5 Turbo and X1 Turbo — with not just text but also audio, image and video capabilities. He added that DeepSeek’s model had a higher propensity for misleading “hallucinations” and was slower and more expensive than other domestic offerings.