Alibaba Touts ChatGPT Challenger Ahead of Main Event
- Alibaba’s cloud unit is holding summit in Beijing next week
- Company’s own AI tool is open for testing on invite-only basis
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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is inviting users to test the company’s in-house artificial intelligence tool, the latest attempt from a Chinese tech behemoth to rival OpenAI’s powerful ChatGPT.
The company’s cloud computing unit is offering invitation codes to some corporate customers so they can try out the large language model called “Tongyi Qianwen,” according to an announcement posted on the subsidiary’s official WeChat account. The name, partly derived from the ancient philosopher Mencius, translates roughly to “Truth from a Thousand Questions.” Alibaba Cloud’s website for the service is only in Chinese, suggesting it could be used primarily to process queries in the e-commerce giant’s home language.