Alibaba Makes A Big AI Leap

Alibaba makes a big AI leap as technology continues to evolve from being a useful tool to a genuine game changer.

Just one day after Meta launched its A.I. model fine-tuned for writing computer code, China just made a big leap in the A.I. race with Alibaba releasing a new chatbot similar to the one backed by Microsoft. Alibaba announced the release of two new A.I. models, Qwen-VL and Qwen-VL-Chat, that dramatically level up the the specter of AI possibilities.

The two open-source models that Alibaba developed are vision language models which implies that unlike the competing Microsoft-backed ChatGPT and Google Bard that read text, Alibaba’s models are able to ‘read’ and act upon images.

Based on photos, Qwen-VL-Chat is able to provide directions from street signs, solve math equations and even make a narrative that brings pictures together. The other release, Qwen-VL is simply a higher-resolution update of the existing image-reading chatbot.

Alibaba finds that the image-scanning technology has significant opportunities to increase the quality of life of visually impaired people, such as by reading a label for them when they go out shopping.

Catching up to Meta. The two tech giant became frenemies in July by making an agreement that made Meta-made Llama 2 model enter the Chinese market through Alibaba, or more precisely, its cloud unit.

Meanwhile, following its biggest-ever restructuring, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu reiterated that Alibaba continues to explore ways of integrating AI innovations across its businesses in order to stay relevant in this ever-evolving business landscape.