Zhipu AI Launches Free AI Agent to Compete in Chinas Tech Landscape

Chinese startup Zhipu AI has launched a free AI agent named AutoGLM Rumination, which is capable of conducting in-depth research, planning trips, and drafting reports. This news was reported by Reuters, citing a statement from the company’s CEO, Zhang Peng.

The digital assistant is powered by the company’s proprietary models, including GLM-Z1-Air for reasoning and the foundational GLM-4-Air-0414. The former reportedly matches the performance of the R1 by DeepSeek, operating eight times faster while using just 1/30th of the computational resources, according to the company.

In March, the new Chinese AI model Manus gained attention both domestically and internationally for its efficiency in addressing a wide range of practical tasks.

The assistant is marketed as a «general-purpose AI agent» for booking travel, analyzing stocks, comparing insurance policies, and completing various other tasks. It was developed by the Tencent-backed company, Butterfly Effect.

While Manus charges users up to $199 monthly, AutoGLM Rumination will be available free of charge on the company’s website and mobile app.

In March, Zhipu AI garnered attention after securing 300 million yuan ($41.5 million) in funding.

As a reminder, in July 2024, the company introduced an AI-based video generation model called Ying.