Chinese AI startup Zhipu AI launched a free AI agent named AutoGLM Rumination, designed for tasks like web searches, travel planning, and writing research reports.

CEO Zhang Peng revealed the product at an event in Beijing, stating it uses Zhipu’s proprietary technology, including the GLM-Z1-Air reasoning model and the GLM-4-Air-0414 foundation model.

Zhipu claims GLM-Z1-Air outperforms DeepSeek’s R1 in speed and resource efficiency.

This launch comes amid a surge in AI product releases in China, driven by cost-efficient models.

Unlike competitor Manus’ subscription-based general AI agent, AutoGLM Rumination is free on Zhipu’s website and mobile app.

Zhipu, established in 2019 as a spinoff from Tsinghua University, has developed the GLM series and claims its GLM4 model surpasses OpenAI’s GPT-4 in several benchmarks.

In March, the company secured three rounds of government-backed funding, including a 300 million yuan (US$41.5 million) investment from Chengdu.

Recent Zhipu AI developments