Alibaba Cloud, the Chinese internet giant Alibaba’s cloud computing business, stated Tuesday that it will launch its own ChatGPT-style application Tongyi Qianwen.
Tongyi Qianwen, which supports both Mandarin and English, will be initially implemented on DingTalk, Alibaba’s workplace communication software, and Tmall Genie, a seller of smart home goods, according to a press statement.
Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose more than 3% on the news, but have subsequently reduced some of those gains. Baidu shares fell 6% in Hong Kong.
During the 2023 Alibaba Cloud Conference, the firm said that the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot will be integrated into all Alibaba products, from business communication to e-commerce, in the “near future.” It did not provide a timetable.
“We are at a technological tipping point, driven by generative AI and cloud computing, and businesses across all industries have begun to embrace intelligence transformation to stay ahead of the competition,” said Daniel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, in a statement.
Alibaba shared the news it was working on a ChatGPT rival in February.
“The new AI model will be integrated across Alibaba’s various businesses to improve user experience in the near future. The company’s customers and developers will have access to the model to create customised AI features in a cost-effective way,” the company said.
Alibaba Cloud will provide its clients with cloud access to Tongyi Qianwen and would assist them in developing bespoke big language models.
The chatbot will be ′′fine-tuned′′ with private information and data from clients, saving these businesses time and money. Tongyi Qianwen will be available for beta testing to Alibaba Cloud’s enterprise clients in China.
“We hope to facilitate businesses from all industries with their intelligence transformation and, ultimately, help boost their business productivity, expand their expertise and capabilities while unlocking more exciting opportunities through innovations,”
Jingren Zhou, CTO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, in the release.
According to the business, developers in China can also apply for beta testing of Tongyi Qianwen to construct AI applications at scale.
Users may anticipate “more compelling” AI functions like picture recognition and text-to-image to be introduced to the Tongyi Qianwen model in the near future.
After Baidu, Alibaba is the latest Chinese player to announce ChatGPT alternatives. In March, Baidu released Ernie Bot, their own ChatGPT variant.
Chinese technological behemoths ranging from Alibaba to Baidu to NetEase have revealed plans to build ChatGPT-style products.
According to International Data Corporation, Alibaba has been the world’s third-largest public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provider since 2018.
According to technology research organisation Gartner, the IT business is also the world’s third top and Asia Pacific’s leading IaaS provider by sales in US dollars since 2018.
