Baixiaoying

A search-first assistant

Baichuan released its first AI assistant app, Baixiaoying, on 22 May 2024, running on the company's Baichuan 4 model^[1][3]. The app carries the slogan "an AI assistant that understands search"^[4], and search is the part of the design the company stresses most^[2]. Baichuan described a larger ambition at launch, saying it wanted to turn the assistant into an AI "super app"^[1]. The term is usually applied to a product that users open for many different jobs rather than for one narrow function; using it for an assistant signals that Baichuan saw the app as an entry point, not a single-purpose tool. The app and the model it runs on appeared together, so the assistant is also the public face of Baichuan 4^[3].

Multi-round search

The centrepiece of the design is multi-round search. A conventional search box takes one query and returns one set of results, leaving the refining to the user. Multi-round search treats a question as something to be worked out over several passes: Baichuan says the app interprets the user's intent step by step and searches again to refine its answers, so that each round moves closer to what the person actually wants to know^[4]. The company points this at complex research tasks, where a single query is unlikely to produce a usable answer^[4]. Splitting a hard question into rounds also lets the user see intermediate answers and steer the next round, which is why the approach is aimed at research-style work rather than quick lookups. Alongside the multi-turn kind, the design also emphasises targeted search^[2].

Documents and everyday tasks

Beyond search, Baixiaoying works as a general-purpose assistant. It answers questions, reads documents quickly, organises material and helps with creative writing, and it accepts voice input as well as typed text^[2]. It also takes file uploads: up to 20 files at a time, each up to 50MB, in PDF, text, DOCX and image formats^[2]. Those limits are the practical constraints a user meets first when handing over a set of documents. Working from an uploaded document is a different job from answering out of general knowledge: the assistant has to locate the relevant passages in the user's own material and keep its answer tied to them, which is why reading documents and organising material sit next to question answering in the described capabilities^[2]. Voice input covers the cases where typing is awkward — a question asked on the move, or a note dictated rather than written^[2].

How Baichuan frames it

Wang Xiaochuan said the app "is not perfect" and described it as an intermediate stage in a shift from AI as a tool towards AI as a companion^[4]. That framing presents the launch as a step rather than a finished product. Baichuan said the app's near-term focus is on health, happiness and creation scenarios, and that commercialisation is not under consideration for now^[4]. Read together, the two statements set expectations low on polish and firm on direction: the app is meant to be used, adjusted and extended, with the search-heavy design as the part Baichuan wanted to get right first. As the company's first assistant app, it also marks the point where Baichuan moved from supplying models to putting a consumer-facing product in front of users^[1][3].