Chinese AI Startup Zhipu AI Launches Free AI Agent Amid Rising Competition
Chinese AI startup Zhipu AI introduced a free AI agent, AutoGLM Rumination, on Monday, joining a wave of new AI product releases in China's highly competitive market.
AutoGLM Rumination is designed for deep research and tasks such as web searches, travel planning, and report writing, CEO Zhang Peng announced at a launch event in Beijing. The agent runs on Zhipu’s proprietary models, including the GLM-Z1-Air reasoning model and GLM-4-Air-0414 foundation model. Zhipu claims that GLM-Z1-Air performs on par with rival DeepSeek’s R1 while operating up to eight times faster and requiring only one-thirtieth of the computing power.
This launch follows a surge in Chinese AI innovations, particularly after DeepSeek introduced a cost-effective model that disrupted the industry earlier this year. It also comes just weeks after competitor Manus unveiled what it called the world's first general AI agent, which charges up to $199 per month. In contrast, Zhipu’s AutoGLM Rumination is completely free, accessible through the company’s GLM model website and mobile app.
Founded in 2019 as a spinoff from Tsinghua University, Zhipu AI has emerged as a key player in China’s AI sector. The company developed the GLM series of models and claims that its latest GLM-4 model surpasses OpenAI’s GPT-4 on multiple performance benchmarks.
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