Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce and cloud computing behemoth, recently unveiled its latest generative AI-powered endeavor: Tongyi Qianwen, their large language model. This new development is designed to improve the user experience of their many apps, such as Dingtalk, a Slack-like workplace chat app, and Tmall Genie, their premium online retailer. As Alibaba states, it will enable their customers and developers to create tailored AI features by leveraging the model.
Created under cloud computing and generative AI, Tongyi Qianwen facilitates natural language communication, allowing users to speak what they want to build. This is reminiscent of Microsoft’s Copilot, a project that uses AI to make using their apps easier. During a pre-recorded demonstration, Alibaba showed how their platform could summarize chat history, write meeting minutes, and create corporate culture slogans.
Alibaba is not alone in this race, though. Baidu, their closest Chinese competitor, has already created their own ChatGPT equivalent. Many other global giants from different countries have showcased their generative AI capabilities as well, such as Midjourney, the new Bing and others, attracting a large number of users each day.
It’s expected that Chinese businesses will work hard to stay on track with their American counterparts and deliver the best AI experience possible. To regulate this sector, China’s top internet watchdog released draft measures that tech companies must follow in order to properly serve AI customers. Such measures include managing the algorithm registration properly, verifying users’ identities, and keeping a data input record of AI prompts.
Alibaba’s move towards generative AI is both exciting and impressive. It further proves their commitment to making computing and AI services more accessible and provides new opportunities for innovative and creative products and services for the world.
