Alibaba launches its ChatGPT-like AI model for public use amid loosening restrictions in China

September 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Alibaba

The launch comes just weeks after Chinese authorities began accepting applications for public-facing AI systems.

Alibaba announced that its proprietary large language model, an artificial intelligence system called Tongyi Qianwen, will be available for public and enterprise access throughout China starting Sept. 13.

Tongyi Qianwen is a ChatGPT-like large language model trained on a corpus of English and Chinese text. While its exact specifications aren’t known — early rumors indicated it would be trained with as many as 10 trillion parameters, 10 times as many as OpenAI’s GPT4, but these remain unsubstantiated — Alibaba previously released two 7 billion-parameter open-source models based on the Tongyi Qianwen architecture.

Alibaba Cloud launched two open-source large vision language models, Qwen-VL and Qwen-VL-Chat, that can comprehend images, texts, and bounding boxes in prompts and facilitate multi-round question answering in both English and Chinese.

Learn more: https://t.co/LrVNzNIRVy… pic.twitter.com/0t0Et6j1BU
— Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group (@cloudintelgrp) August 30, 2023

Previously, Tongyi Qianwen had only been available to a limited group of users during its beta test phase. The public rollout coincides with a recent loosening of restrictions related to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the People’s Republic of China.

A set of guidelines published by the Chinese government in June dictated that, going forward, all AI technologies released to the public would require a special vetting and certification process.

The rules went into effect on Aug. 15. As Cointelegraph reported, a number of Chinese companies were given approval to launch models, including Baidu, Tencent, TikTok and ByteDance.

Among the provisions included in the updated restrictions are rules barring the generation of images in the likeness of China’s president, Xi Jinping, and mandates indicating organizations will address objectionable content within a three-month period. Previous versions of the legislation called for monetary fines, but as Cointelegraph reported, those plans were axed.

As China explores a loosening of its regulations, the United States has taken only preliminary steps to regulate AI technologies. Most recently, on Sept. 13, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hosted a litany of top U.S. tech CEOs and founders in the first of nine scheduled forums to discuss potential policy ideas.

Ant Group launches a new blockchain brand for Web3 developers

September 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Alibaba

The new entity, ZAN, will help the mother company shake off its affiliations with Web3 and proceed to the IPO.

Ant Group, the owner of the world's largest mobile payment platform Alipay, revealed its new sub-brand under the name ZAN. The brand will focus on blockchain development and services for both institutional and individual Web3 developers.

The official press release, published on Sept. 8, cites a wide scope of technical products and services, which ZAN will offer to its clients. It starts with a solution to help Web3 companies issue and manage real-world assets (RWAs) in compliance with local regulatory requirements. Then it covers a series of technical products, including electronic Know-Your-Customer (eKYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know-Your-Transactions (KYT) for Web3.

ZAN will also provide Smart Contract Reviews (SCR) and Node Services including Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) for building dApps.

Earlier this year, during the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, a Web3 decentralized identity data aggregator HashKey DID announced its adoption of ZAN eKYC. HashKey Group participated in ZAN’s brand launch ceremony as one of its first partners.

In July, media reported that the Ant Group is looking to exclude its blockchain branch from a main entity, which will be applying for a financial holding license in China.

In 2020, Ant Group aimed for a $226 billion valuation with a $30 billion IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai. If it had succeeded, this IPO would have been the biggest ever, beating records like the $29.4 billion raised by the Saudi Aramco IPO. But back then this plan was blocked by the Chinese government. Now the company prepares to to go public on Hong Kong exchange.

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Alibaba releases two open-sourced AI models to rival Meta’s Llama 2

August 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

The Chinese tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba revealed two new open-sourced AI models, Qwen-7B and Qwen-7B-Chat, to rival Meta’s recently-launched Llama 2.

Alibaba Group, the Chinese tech and e-commerce giant, announced the release of two open-sourced artificial intelligence (AI) models from its cloud computing department on Aug. 3, according to a press release.

Its two large language models (LLMs) are dubbed Qwen-7B and Qwen-7B-Chat, each with 7 billion parameters. Alibaba said these two models are small-size versions of the Tongyi Qiawen, which the company released in April.

The new models aim to help introduce AI to the operations of small and medium-sized businesses.

The company said Qwen-7B and Qwen-7B-Chat have various capabilities that would be appealing to enterprises, such as being able to “code, model weights, and documentation will be freely accessible to academics, researchers and commercial institutions worldwide.”

Alibaba’s latest LLMs are also the first released from a Chinese tech company to be open-sourced. However, it said businesses with over 100 million monthly active users will need a license.

On Aug. 1, the company also announced an update in the form of a vector engine to its AnalyticDB data warehousing service, allowing its corporate clients to quickly create custom generative AI applications.

This development comes after Meta released its open-sourced LLM — Llama 2 — with Microsoft on July 16.

Meta says its Llama 2 was trained using 40% more public data and can process twice as much context as its predecessor. It is also open-sourced, with the biggest version of Llama 2 featuring 70 billion parameters.

Similar to Alibaba’s latest model, it requires a license from companies with over 700 million monthly users.

On July 26, Alibaba announced what it called “the first training and deployment solution for the entire Llama2 series in China” after it deployed a Llama 2 solution for businesses to develop AI-powered software and tools.

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Alibaba to support Meta’s AI model Llama – report

July 26, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Alibaba’s cloud computing service taps Meta’s artificial intelligence model Llama to power new software development.

E-commerce group Alibaba will become the first Chinese company to make use of Meta’s open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model Llama to power zero-cost development of programs.

According to an initial report from Reuters which cited an official statement from Alibaba Cloud through its WeChat account, the cloud computing arm of the Chinese conglomerate has deployed a Llama 2-based solution to allow businesses to develop software and tools using AI:

“Today, Alibaba Cloud has launched the first training and deployment solution for the entire Llama2 series in China, welcoming all developers to create customised large models on Alibaba Cloud.”

Meta’s Llama2 model was released in July 2023 as a free-to-use service rivaling the likes of early movers including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard. Meta intends to allow Llama2 to be free to use for companies with less than 700 million monthly active users.

The announcement from Meta highlighted that Microsoft remained its preferred partner for developing its generative AI tool while Llama 2 would be freely available for research and commercial use.

Meta also noted that it was adopting an open approach to provide increased access to foundational AI technology to benefit businesses around the world. This includes supporting companies around the world that are building products on Llama 2, cloud providers including the model in its offerings as well as research efforts exploring “safe and responsible deployment of large generative models”.

Alibaba Cloud is set to become one of a handful of prominent cloud computing services including Amazon Web Service (AWS) that will tap into Llama 2’s large language model.

The development comes after the United States moved to curtail the sale of select AI processing hardware chipsets in June 2023 as the country looks to retain a competitive advantage in the rapidly developing area of AI tools.

The Reuters report also suggests that the integration of Meta’s new AI model could present an avenue for the country to reaffirm ties in China. Meta’s Facebook has been banned in China since 2009 alongside Twitter, YouTube and other Western-based social media and content platforms.

Cointelegraph has contacted Alibaba Cloud and Meta to ascertain the finer details of the Llama 2 integration, but hasn't yet received a response.

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Tech giant Alibaba announces crypto-friendly chair following Daniel Zhang stepping down

June 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

The next company chair of Alibaba has backed several crypto projects through his wealth manager and tweeted he "like[s] crypto" in December 2021.

Joe Tsai, the soon-to-be former executive vice chair of China-based technology giant Alibaba, will replace Daniel Zhang as company chair.

In a June 20 announcement, Alibaba said Zhang would be stepping down as chair of the company and chief executive officer effective as of Sept. 10, whereupon he will continue to serve as the chair and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group. Tsai, through wealth manager Blue Pool Capital, has been behind investments in several crypto firms including FTX, Polygon’s $450-million funding round in February, and Web3 firm Artifact Labs.

I like crypto
— Joe Tsai (@joetsai1999) December 28, 2021

Eddie Yongming Wu, chair of Taobao and Tmall Group, will follow Zhang as Alibaba CEO as well as replace him on the company’s board of directors. Alibaba is one of the largest companies in the world, with a market capitalization of more than $225 billion at the time of publication, following Tencent, Kweichow Moutai, and ICBC among China-based firms.

“I look forward to working with Eddie to spark our next phase of growth through technology and innovation," said Tsai.

China has had a mixed relationship with crypto and blockchain. The country was infamous for cracking down on mining firms in 2021 prompting an exodus of companies to other jurisdictions, but also has been pushing trials of a digital yuan through the People's Bank of China.

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs), however, seem to operate in a regulatory gray area for China. Alibaba started an NFT marketplace copyright trading in 2021 as well as an NFT solution under its cloud business unit — the latter was deleted without explanation shortly following its launch.

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Alibaba’s Global Online Retailer Adds Payments Support for Top Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) Rival

June 2, 2023 The Daily Hodl

Crypto Biz: Global AI race ramps up, Winklevoss $100M loan to Gemini, and more

April 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Crypto Biz: Global AI race ramps up, Winklevoss 0M loan to Gemini, and more

Recent days have seen new players emerge in the race for artificial intelligence, with business giants announcing AI initiatives.

The artificial intelligence (AI) global race has taken on new players in the past days, with Twitter and Alibaba reportedly integrating the technology into their businesses. The Chinese giant is working on its own chatbot assistant, while the social media platform is apparently leveraging AI to “detect & highlight manipulation of public opinion”. It's worth remembering that Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently spearheaded a letter calling for the halt of advanced AI development due to societal concerns. As the proverb says, "if you can't beat your enemy, join them".

While the AI landscape is taking shape, crypto exchange Gemini has secured a $100 million personal loan from its founders, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Funding comes after alleged external capital raising attempts failed.

This week’s Crypto Biz looks at the AI market competition worldwide, the Winklevoss' loan to Gemini and MetaMask move to allow crypto purchases.

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Co-founders of crypto exchange Gemini Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have reportedly dipped into their own pockets to fund the business amid the crypto market downturn through a personal $100 million loan. The cash injection follows previous attempts to raise capital from outside investors. The Winklevoss brothers are funding Gemini amid regulatory scrutiny in the United States. In January, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Gemini with offering unregistered securities through the exchange’s Earn program.

Elon Musk reportedly buys thousands of GPUs for Twitter AI project

Tech billionaire Elon Musk seems to be making progress with his plans on developing Twitter's artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. According to anonymous sources familiar with the company, the Twitter CEO recently purchased nearly 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) to be used on the platform. Typically, GPUs work on large-scale AI models due to the massive computation power required by the technology. The alleged purchase comes a few days after Musk spearheaded a letter calling for the halt of AI development due to societal concerns.

In the months ahead, we will use AI to detect & highlight manipulation of public opinion on this platform.

Let’s see what the psy ops cat drags in …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2023

MetaMask launches new fiat purchase function for cryptocurrency

MetaMask has announced the launch of a new feature that will allow users to purchase crypto with fiat currency directly from its Portfolio Dapp. According to MetaMask, the goal is to offer users an easier way to purchase crypto with fiat currency. A wide range of cryptocurrencies are available for purchase in the feature through debit and credit cards, as well as PayPal, bank transfers, and instant ACH (Automated Clearing House). The service will be rolled out to users in over 189 countries across eight different networks. MetaMask claims the service takes the user's location into account and follows local regulations.

Tech giant Alibaba to roll out ChatGPT competitor AI

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is joining the global artificial intelligence (AI) race with its own version of a chatbot assistant. Alibaba announced the rollout of the ChatGPT-like product in the “near future.” The new product will be called Tongyi Qianwen, which translates to English as “seeking an answer by asking a thousand questions.“ The chatbot will be first available in English and Mandarin. It will be also integrated with Alibaba’s vast ecosystem of tech businesses, including the workplace messaging app, DingTalk, and voice assistant smart speaker, Tmall Genie.

Crypto Biz is your weekly pulse of the business behind blockchain and crypto, delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.

Tech giant Alibaba to roll out ChatGPT competitor AI

April 11, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Tongyi Qianwen, the company’s AI chatbot, will be rolled out in the near future and integrated with Alibaba’s tech ecosystem.

Chinese e-commerce giant enters the global artificial intelligence (AI) race with its own version of a chatbot assistant. Alibaba announced the rollout of the ChatGPT-like product in the “near future.”

According to a BBC report from April 11, the new product will be called Tongyi Qianwen, which translates to English as “seeking an answer by asking a thousand questions.“ The chatbot will be integrated with Alibaba’s vast ecosystem of tech businesses, including the workplace messaging app, DingTalk, and voice assistant smart speaker, Tmall Genie.

The chatbot will be able to communicate in English and Mandarin at the first stage. Its task scope includes turning conversations into written notes, writing emails and drafting business proposals. The main intrigue, however, is whether Tongyi Qianwen could work on more creative tasks like its American counterpart.

ChatGPT was released by Microsoft in November 2022 and later integrated into the company’s internet browser, Bing. Generative AI made global headlines due to its ability to provide sophisticated information responses in a casual chat-like manner, mimic different writing styles by command and ultimately help users to create all kinds of texts, from academic research to movie scripts.

Earlier, Google’s parent company, Alphabet and Chinese tech behemoth, Baidu, announced the development of their versions of AI chatbots named Bard and Ernie, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Cyberspace Administration of China will require chatbot developers to ensure that AI-generated content is “accurate” and doesn’t “endanger security.” According to article four of its guidelines, once made open for public feedback on April 11, such content should “reflect the core values of socialism, and must not contain subversion of state power.”

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Jack Ma surrenders control of fintech giant Ant Group

January 12, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Alibaba

After founding Ant Group in 2014, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is now ceding control of the company as part of Ant’s corporate structure changes.

Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma will no longer control the fintech giant Ant Group as part of recent changes to the company’s corporate structure.

Ant Group officially announced that Ma has agreed to give up control of Ant Group as part of the company’s further corporate governance optimization and restructuring.

Prior to the change, Ma was the control person in Ant, exercising control over the company through related entities in addition to his 10% stake in Ant.

Once the restructuring process is complete, no single shareholder will have control over Ant, the company said in a statement. Major shareholders like Hangzhou Junhan and Hangzhou Junao will independently exercise their voting rights in Ant, the firm noted.

“The adjustment will not result in any change to the economic interests of any shareholders of Ant Group and their beneficiaries,” Ant added.

Ant’s restructuring and Ma relinquishing control over the company could have a positive impact on the firm in the long term, according to some analysts.

Wang Pengbo, senior financial analyst at BoTong Analysys, believes that the new company structure with more diversified voting rights is more stable. “It paves the way for it to go public in future, although a listing in the immediate future is very unlikely,” he noted.

Amid the news of Ma surrendering control over Ant, shares of Ant-affiliated company Alibaba have jumped significantly. Alibaba stock (BABA) has rallied nearly 10% on the New York Stock Exchange since Ant made the announcement, according to data from TradingView.

*Alibaba’s stock 30-day price chart. Source: TradingView*

As previously reported, Ant attempted to conduct the largest initial public offering (IPO) in 2020, planning to raise about $30 billion. The Chinese government eventually opted to halt Ant’s IPO, as local authorities wanted to assert their power over private business.

After the IPO suspension, Ant has continued to actively explore the benefits of blockchain and digital assets though. Owning the world’s largest digital payment platform Alipay, Ant continued to be involved in the development of China’s national digital currency after starting cooperation with the People’s Bank of China back in 2017.

The company is also among Chinese tech giants that created blockchain alliances over the past few years for related operations. The company has been actively developing its blockchain business, AntChain, introducing new products in 2022.

Despite its apparent interest in blockchain and related technologies, Ant has still moved to comply with China’s negative stance on crypto. As Cointelegraph reported in March 2022, Ant Group was among firms enforcing some restrictions on their nonfungible token platforms fearing the government’s crackdown.

Alibaba

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