Chinese tech giant Alibaba is set to roll out its own ChatGPT-like model of artificial intelligence named Tongyi Qianwen across its e-commerce business, executives said on Tuesday.
Tongyi Qianwen loosely means seeking the truth from a thousand questions. The chatbot, which can answer in English and Chinese, and will initially be implemented across Alibaba’s messaging app DingTalk and its smart speaker Tmall Genie.
“We are at a technological watershed moment driven by generative AI and cloud computing,” said Alibaba chief executive Daniel Zhang on Tuesday.
Alibaba
9988,
stock rose nearly 2% in Hong Kong trading on Tuesday. Its New York-listed shares
BABA,
dipped 0.15% early Tuesday.
“Ten to 20 years from now, when we look back, we will realize we were all on the same starting line,” he added. “Seizing these future opportunities is our common wish and requires a shared vision.”
Read: Can artificial intelligence reverse the tech downturn? Startups are hiring for the next big thing.
It comes shortly after the Softbank-backed company said it would split itself into six business entities, one of which will be its Cloud Intelligence Group, led by Zhang.
Although Zhang said that Alibaba has made cloud computing a “core strategy” for 14 years, the unit is barely a profit-making enterprise, with its annual revenue growth slowing to 3% in the fourth quarter, according to its latest results.
Alibaba’s efforts follow the steps of other Chinese tech companies who are racing to catch up with U.S-based ChatGPT creator and Microsoft-backed
MSFT,
OpenAI . Last month, Baidu
9888,
BIDU,
revealed its chatbot called Ernie and on Monday, SenseTime
20,
showcased its AI-powered chatbot and image generator.
Meanwhile, the Chinese AI race has alarmed authorities to the point that the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s cyberspace regulator, has unveiled draft measures for managing generative AI.
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Margherita Wrona