BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese search engine giant Baidu said on Friday it would make its next-generation artificial intelligence model Ernie open-source from June 30, a major shift in strategy as competition heats up.

Asian equities were mixed but mostly lower overnight as Korea and Japan outperformed and Hong Kong and Mainland China underperformed.

Chinese internet search giant Baidu will make its Ernie Bot service free to use from April 1, providing wider access to the company's own artificial intelligence (AI) models, as competition in this nascent field heats up with the rise of innovative newcomers like DeepSeek.