BABA rises as the company prepares major update of its flagship AI app, aimed at taking on ChatGPT
Alibaba is up nearly 5% in Hong Kong on Thursday morning, paring losses earlier in the week, after Bloomberg reported that the e-commerce giant is set to overhaul its mobile AI app to become a fully functioning AI agent, in a model that more closely resembles OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Per the report, Alibaba will first update and rename the existing “Tongyi” mobile app to “Qwen,” after the company’s better-known AI model, then gradually add agentic AI features that could support shopping from its main Taobao business “in coming months.”
“The idea is to streamline the look and feel for consumers under the Qwen banner and make it the go-to app,” people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. That would take advantage of its strong e-commerce business to draw new users into its AI app — in a bid to catch up with ByteDance’s Doubao and Tencent’s Yuanbao, which are more popular in China. The revamped Qwen app will remain free to users “for now.”
The latest news builds on Alibaba’s pledged $50 billion-plus AI budget.
With access to AI hardware at the forefront of Sino-American tensions, Chinese tech firms have been investing heavily into all parts of the AI supply chain. Just this morning, Baidu and Tencent are also in the green on a flurry of AI-related headlines, with the former unveiling two new AI semiconductors and the latter posting strong AI-fueled earnings.
Per the report, Alibaba will first update and rename the existing “Tongyi” mobile app to “Qwen,” after the company’s better-known AI model, then gradually add agentic AI features that could support shopping from its main Taobao business “in coming months.”
“The idea is to streamline the look and feel for consumers under the Qwen banner and make it the go-to app,” people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. That would take advantage of its strong e-commerce business to draw new users into its AI app — in a bid to catch up with ByteDance’s Doubao and Tencent’s Yuanbao, which are more popular in China. The revamped Qwen app will remain free to users “for now.”
The latest news builds on Alibaba’s pledged $50 billion-plus AI budget.
With access to AI hardware at the forefront of Sino-American tensions, Chinese tech firms have been investing heavily into all parts of the AI supply chain. Just this morning, Baidu and Tencent are also in the green on a flurry of AI-related headlines, with the former unveiling two new AI semiconductors and the latter posting strong AI-fueled earnings.
