What Is Tongyi Qianwen: Alibaba's ChatGPT Competitor Explained

If you are a fan of artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbots, you must have heard of ChatGPT, the groundbreaking AI model that can generate realistic and engaging texts on almost any topic. ChatGPT has sparked a lot of interest and excitement in the tech world, but it is not the only game in town. In fact, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has recently unveiled its own version of generative AI, called Tongyi Qianwen, which means “seeking truth by asking a thousand questions.”

What is Tongyi Qianwen?

Tongyi Qianwen (通义千问 in Chinese) is a large language model that was trained on vast amounts of data to produce compelling responses to users’ prompts. It can perform various tasks, such as summarizing meeting notes, writing emails, drafting business proposals, telling stories, planning trips, and giving shopping advice. Tongyi Qianwen possesses Chinese and English language capabilities.

Tongyi Qianwen is built on Tongyi, a proprietary pre-trained model framework developed by Alibaba that brings together a wide range of AI models.

Alibaba claims that Tongyi Qianwen will bring about big changes to the way we produce, work, and live our lives.

“We are at a technological watershed moment driven by generative AI and cloud computing, and businesses across all sectors have started to embrace intelligence transformation to stay ahead of the game.”
-Daniel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence

The change is already started! Alibaba stock was up 3% in early trading, thanks to Tongyi Qianwen.

DingTalk, Alibaba’s workplace messaging app, will be the first to incorporate the technology, which can be used to take notes in meetings, compose emails, and even create business proposals. Tmall Genie, Alibaba’s virtual assistant, will be updated to include the feature as well as soon as possible.

“The new AI model will be integrated across Alibaba’s various businesses to improve user experience in the near future. The company’s customers and developers will have access to the model to create customised AI features in a cost-effective way.”
-Alibaba

Tongyi Qianwen will soon be available to Alibaba Cloud customers so that they may create their own unique large language models.

How to access Tongyi Qianwen?

Well, for now, it is only available to enterprise customers who can sign up for testing on Alibaba’s cloud platform.

Alibaba plans to integrate Tongyi Qianwen into all of its apps in the near future, starting with DingTalk, its workplace messaging app, and Tmall Genie, its voice assistant. Eventually, you will be able to access Tongyi Qianwen on any Alibaba app, from e-commerce to mapping services.

How to use Tongyi Qianwen?

To use Tongyi Qianwen, you just need to type or speak your prompt and wait for the AI model to generate a response. For example, if you want to write an invitation letter for a business meeting, you can simply input the basic information, such as the date, time, location, and agenda of the meeting, and Tongyi Qianwen will craft a professional and polite letter for you. Or, if you want to buy some makeup products online, you can ask Tongyi Qianwen for recommendations based on your skin type, preferences, and budget.

For more information about Tongyi Qianwen, click here.

China AI initiatives are rising

Tongyi Qianwen is not the only generative AI model in China. Other tech companies, such as Baidu and SenseTime, have also launched or announced their own chatbots based on similar technology. However, Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen stands out for its scale and ambition.

Alibaba aims to make Tongyi Qianwen a ubiquitous and versatile service that can enhance every aspect of its users’ lives.

If you are curious about Tongyi Qianwen and want to try it out yourself, you may have to wait a little longer until it becomes widely available. But once it does, you will be able to enjoy a new level of convenience and intelligence powered by Alibaba’s generative AI.

All images are generated with Wombo Dream.

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