Jack Ma’s Alibaba Joins The AI Wars With Its Own Generative Chatbot

Alibaba Launches ChatGPT Rival Tongyi Qianwen

There is no question about it, ChatGPT has revolutionized the tech industry and will go down as a landmark step in the development of AI technology. Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022, there has been numerously increased interest in generative AI.

Microsoft, which backs OpenAI, has integrated the chatbot into its Bing search engine and has plans to embed it in its office apps, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. At the same time, other companies such as Google and Baidu have developed their own AI models, Bard and Earnie Bot respectively.

This has effectively launched what many are referring to as the AI Wars as these companies battle it out to see who will corner the market with the best technology. However, until recently, the above seemed to be the main competitors but a new player is joining.

In early April (within the first week), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. invited its users to test the company’s very own AI tool which as per Bloomberg, is expected to rival ChatGPT. On Tuesday, April 11, in Shanghai, Alibaba finally officially launched its generative AI model.

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The model is known as Tongyi Qianwen. This is a Chinese phrase that loosely translates to “seeking an answer by asking a thousand questions.” As of yet, there is no English version of this name or any news as to whether there will be one.

During the live-streamed launch, Alibaba’s chairman and CEO said, “We are at a technological watershed moment driven by generative AI and cloud computing.” The technology “will bring about big changes to the way we produce, the way we work, and the way we live our lives,” he added.

Tongyi Qianwen is capable of supporting prompts in both Chinese and English. As BBC reveals, the chatbot will be initially added to Alibaba’s workplace messaging app DingTalk. On the app, it will be used for various tasks such as summarizing meeting notes, writing emails, and drafting business proposals.

Alibaba’s chatbot will also be integrated into the company’s voice assistant Tmall Genie. This will allow users of the voice assistant to prompt the chatbot using their voice instead of typing commands.

As reported by Reuters, Alibaba’s cloud unit will also integrate the chatbot into the company’s system. The cloud unit will open up Tongyi Qianwen to their clients. This will allow them to build their own customized large language models for the chatbot and its future iterations.

Alibaba officially began the registrations for the Chatbot on Friday 7th April.