Tech giant Alibaba is seeking companies to test its Tongyi Qianwen AI chatbot, business magazine STAR Market Daily reported Friday, joining a rush to emulate ChatGPT’s explosive success.
ChatGPT, a free-to-use Large Language Model (LLM) application created by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, was released to the general public last November and can generate articles and essays on demand at user prompts. .
Alibaba has started registering companies to test its AI applications, STAR Market reported, without elaborating.
A source close to the matter confirmed to Reuters that the application is an LLM aimed at business users.
Alibaba’s cloud computing division released a teaser on Friday, posting a simple message on social media:
The chatbot application’s official website only has a box to request an invitation by entering a phone number and email address, but doesn’t provide specific details on exactly how to use it.
Alibaba Cloud did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The official launch is scheduled for Tuesday’s Alibaba Cloud event. Daniel Zhang, his CEO of Alibaba Group and his cloud arm of the company, will speak at the event.
Other companies participating in the AI chatbot race include Baidu Inc, which has opened its Ernie Bot application to trial users only at this time.
On Saturday, network gear maker Huawei Technologies will hold an event to unveil Pangu, the company’s natural language processing (NLP) AI model.
SenseTime will also host an event next week showcasing “advancements in cutting-edge artificial intelligence software.”
Alibaba announced last week that it will reorganize into six separate divisions, each with its own board of directors and CEO. Zhang will remain CEO of the cloud division.
