Earlier this year, Alibaba announced that it was working on a ChatGPT-like AI technology that would allow China to enter and take the lead in the AI race. Now, the Alibaba ChatGPT alternative begins rollout under the name of Tongyi Qianwen and has support for both English and Chinese languages.
As per CNBC, Alibaba Cloud announced that its ChatGPT-like system called Tongyi Qianwen will start rolling out, on June 2, 2023. Initially, the system will run on DingTalk which is Alibaba’s workplace communication tool, as well as smart home appliances provider Tmall Genie, as per a statement on April 11.
When OpenAI revealed its pioneer product ChatGPT to the public other tech giants followed with their AI-powered products. As 2023 started, the AI race was accelerating, and Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen is the Chinese tech giant’s response.
Integration with Tingwu
According to the press release, the Alibaba ChatGPT alternative is based on LLMs (Large Language Models) and has been integrated into Tingwu, the company’s intelligent assistant. Alibaba’s AI assistant Tingwu has been used to convert video content as well as speech into text in efforts to improve productivity in the workplace.
Additionally, Tingwu can be used across numerous multimedia platforms where users can transcribe speech into text and make knowledge easier to share and obtain.
Fully integrated into Alibaba business
When Alibaba Cloud initially announced its ChatGPT rival earlier this year, it said that the new AI system will be part of all business applications in the ecosystem. However, without specifying the exact date, the company announced that new features will be available in “the near future”.
Some of the new AI features will allow users to compile text answer to get answer to user questions inside audio and video files, summarization of PowerPoint presentations and English to Chinese translation of different multimedia content via Tingwu Chrome plugin.
This will allow users, as well as employees, to be more productive, and also improve the user experience in the process.
However, it wasn’t announced when this integration will take place, but as the company said, the system aims to make AI more accessible to people and enterprises.
“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 said in a statement.
Alibaba ChatGPT alternative Tongyi Qianwen can now be accessed online by the general public here but in order to experience its features better, anyone who wants to test it out will need to create an Alibaba Cloud account. As part of the open trial, users will also be able to get speech-to-text transcription and test out other interesting features.
