Chinese technology giant Alibaba has announced plans to roll out its own artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT-style product called Tongyi Qianwen, the BBC reports.
Its cloud computing unit says it will integrate the chatbot across Alibaba’s businesses in the “near future” but did not give details on its timeline.
In recent months, technology companies around the world have unveiled their own so-called generative AI chatbots.
Earlier this year, Alibaba revealed it was working on a rival to ChatGPT.
Tongyi Qianwen roughly translates as “seeking an answer by asking a thousand questions”, although Alibaba has not given an English version of the name.
“We are at a technological watershed moment driven by generative AI and cloud computing,” Alibaba’s chairman and chief executive Daniel Zhang said in as Tongyi Qianwen was launched.
The company said Tongyi Qianwen, which is capable of working in English as well as Chinese, will initially be added to DingTalk, Alibaba’s workplace messaging app.
It will perform a number of tasks including turning conversations in meetings into written notes, writing emails and drafting business proposals, the company said.
Alibaba said it will also be integrated into Tmall Genie, which is similar to Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant smart speaker.
