China’s Baidu launched an AI-driven video generator called MuseSteamer on Wednesday, capable of generating videos up to 10 seconds long in three versions – Turbo, Pro and Lite. Unlike consumer-focused rivals like OpenAI’s Sora, Baidu’s tool targets only business users with no consumer app currently available. The company also announced a major overhaul to its search engine, including a redesigned search box that accepts longer queries and supports voice and image-based searches.
The move comes as artificial intelligence companies have been expanding beyond chatbots to text-to-video and image-to-video generators over the past year. In China, ByteDance, Tencent and Alibaba have also launched similar models. Baidu has faced increasing pressure as AI-based chatbots such as ByteDance’s Doubao and Tencent’s Yuanbao become more popular.
The strategic focus on business clients reflects Baidu’s effort to differentiate itself in the competitive AI video generation market while strengthening its position against domestic rivals who are increasingly challenging its search dominance.