BIDU Baidu Inc

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) on Thursday unveiled the Xiaodu Smart Display X8, customized for the evolving needs of China’s households with advanced AI-powered interaction capabilities and an enhanced “Children’s Mode”.

The Xiaodu Smart Display X8 is equipped with a suite of upgraded AI-powered functions that allow users to interface seamlessly with the device, including full-duplex continued conversation, far-field voice interaction, facial recognition, hand gesture control, and eye gesture detection. The X8 boasts an extensive new content services ecosystem for family entertainment, which includes home feed, videos, live streaming, music, games, and online education programs for children of different ages. Intelligent interaction and user experience are further enhanced through the X8’s built-in AI model evolution and self-learning AI system, enabling the device to better understand users’ preferences and anticipate their needs over time.

As a result of constant product innovation, the Children’s Mode of the Xiaodu Smart Display X8 includes an eye-protection function and an assistant function to help look after children. The Children’s Mode uses facial recognition technology to recognize when children are using the device and protects them from inappropriate content, long screen time, and proximity to the screen.

“China's smart speaker market is now larger than the smart TV market, and smart speakers are gradually becoming a necessity for Chinese households. The growth of the market in the next three years will be driven by smart displays,” said Kun Jing, Vice President of Baidu and General Manager of Baidu Smart Living Group, at the X8 launch event at the Laoshe Teahouse in Beijing.

“Intelligent interaction, intelligent comprehension, and a new content services ecosystem are three important elements for the development of smart displays,” he said, noting that Baidu will continue to explore imaginative scenarios for the future as a smart display pioneer.

The X8 has an 8-inch FullView IPS display, with a 1280x800 resolution and a viewing angle of 80 degrees from all directions. The touchscreen supports five simultaneous touches and responds within 10 milliseconds. The display is tilted at 105 degrees to make viewing more comfortable for users, and the device is equipped with a high-performing 4 microphone array.

Baidu’s launch of the X8 comes on the heels of a report on the “intelligence level” of devices recently issued by a research unit of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which affirmed Baidu’s leading position in AI-powered smart devices. In the report, the CAS’s R&D Center for Internet of Things assessed the smart speaker products of China’s four largest players, evaluating the “intelligence” of devices across three distinct technological capabilities: automatic speech recognition, natural language understanding, and content recommendation. The corresponding indicators used to measure these capabilities were “speech recognition”, “intent comprehension”, and user satisfaction.  

Xiaodu smart devices ranked as top performers across all three indicators, scoring more than 90% in speech recognition and comprehension rates, according to the report, which constitutes the most authoritative review of China’s smart speaker market published to date. The CAS is China’s leading academic institution in the natural sciences, functioning as both the national scientific think tank and academic governing body.

About BaiduBaidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. Baidu aims to make the complicated world simpler for users and enterprises through technology. Baidu’s ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “BIDU.” Currently, ten ADSs represent one Class A ordinary share.

Media ContactIntlcomm@baidu.com

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