Alibaba accelerates AI push with new open-source, text-to-video models By Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese technology company Alibaba (NYSE: ) on Thursday released new open-source models of artificial intelligence and text-to-video AI technology, stepping up its efforts to compete in the booming area of ​​generative AI.

The open-source models, numbering more than 100, come from the Alibaba Qwen 2.5 family, the latest large-language core model released in May.

Chinese tech companies, like their US counterparts, have invested heavily in generative AI, as firms strive to develop robust product portfolios and diversified offerings.

While competitors like Baidu (NASDAQ: ) and OpenAI have taken primarily closed-source approaches, Alibaba has embraced a hybrid model, investing in both proprietary and open-source development to expand its product line AI.

Its new models range from 0.5 to 72 billion parameters — the variables that determine an AI model’s capability and performance — in size, offering math, coding and support for more than 29 languages, Alibaba said in a statement .

The models aim to address a wide range of AI applications in various sectors, including automotive, gaming and scientific research.

Alibaba also unveiled a new text-to-video model on Thursday as part of its Tongyi Wanxiang imaging family, joining a growing number of Chinese technology firms entering this emerging market.

The move puts Alibaba in direct competition with global players such as OpenAI, which has also shown interest in text-to-video technology.

In August, ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, launched its text-to-video app Jimeng AI on the Apple (NASDAQ: ) App Store for Chinese users.