The Battle for AI Entry Points Has Been Decided? Wenshin Assistant Joins Douban and Qianwen to Enter the 200 Million Club

The Wall Street Journal disclosed on January 20 that the monthly active users of Baidu's ERNIE Bot have officially exceeded 200 million, joining ByteDance's Douyin and Alibaba's Qwen as the three major "billion-level AI entry points" in China.

Baidu, ERNIE Yiyan, ERNIE Large Model

This AI assistant, which has deep thinking and long-term memory capabilities, can provide personalized recommendations by accurately combining the context of interactions. Its functions cover a wide range of multimodal services, including video calls, AI creation, photo questions, and problem-solving assistance.

By introducing the MCP service tool, ERNIE Bot has transformed from a mere "information provider" to a "service deliverer." Currently, Baidu has fully integrated this assistant into its search app and PC version, and has deeply connected with mainstream applications such as JD.com, Meituan, and Ctrip, allowing users to directly complete tasks such as booking tickets, ordering meals, and seeking professional legal and health consultations through AI, building an extensive AI ecosystem service network.

Step Star Releases AI Desktop Companion Windows Version, Integrating 16 Mainstream Office Software

Step Star releases the AI desktop companion 'Xiaoyue' for Windows, focusing on the concept of a terminal intelligent entity that can perform tasks, is always present, has memory, and can evolve. The product is deeply integrated with the operating system, using the MCP protocol to deeply call 16 third-party tools such as Excel, QQ Email, and Feishu, significantly enhancing desktop office automation capabilities.

Runlayer Launches with 11 Million USD in Seed Funding, Positioned as an All-in-One MCP Security Gateway

Runlayer raised $11M seed funding from Khosla Ventures and Felicis. After 4 months in stealth, it secured 8 enterprise clients like Gusto and Instacart. Its platform integrates gateway, threat detection, and observability into a single console for MCP security. Founded by Nanit and Vowel creators, with MCP spec author as advisor.....

Microsoft Tests AI File Connector in Win11: Claude Can Directly Request Local Files

Microsoft is testing a new feature in Win11 that allows third-party AI (such as Claude) to request access to local files through File Explorer. After the user grants permission, the AI can directly read local content to complete tasks without uploading to the cloud. Demonstration cases include generating a real estate website using local photos and summarizing folder contents to create a PPT.

Stack Overflow launches Stack Internal: Turning Enterprise Q&A into an AI Trustworthy Knowledge Base

Stack Overflow has launched the enterprise product Stack Internal, which provides technical Q&A metadata and reliability scores through the MCP interface, helping AI agents avoid generating incorrect information. The CEO revealed that large customers have already paid to use it, with a business model similar to Reddit's content licensing.

MCP Safe Track Adds a New Unicorn: Runlayer Launches with $11 Million Seed Funding

Runlayer completed a $11 million seed funding round, led by Khosla Ventures and Felicis. The company ended its stealth operation and has signed eight major enterprises, including Gusto, and invited the main author of the MCP standard as a consultant. Since its open-source release in 2024, the MCP protocol has been adopted by mainstream manufacturers such as OpenAI and Microsoft to support AI agent development.