Photo credit: www.cnbc.com
The Alibaba office building in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, on Aug 28, 2024.
Chinese tech giant Alibaba Cloud announced the launch of its newest AI model, “Qwen2.5-Omni-7B,” on Thursday, amidst a competitive landscape for large language models in China that intensified after the so-called “DeepSeek moment.”
The “Qwen2.5-Omni-7B” model is a multimodal AI system, capable of processing diverse inputs such as text, images, audio, and video, while providing real-time text generation and natural speech responses. This innovative feature was highlighted in an announcement on Alibaba Cloud’s official site.
Designed for deployment on edge devices like smartphones, the model promises high efficiency and robust performance. According to Alibaba, this unique capability positions the model as an ideal foundation for creating agile and cost-efficient AI applications, particularly in areas such as intelligent voice technology.
For instance, it could assist visually impaired users by providing real-time auditory descriptions of their surroundings, showcasing the model’s potential to enhance accessibility and user experience.
In line with a rising trend in China, the “Qwen2.5-Omni-7B” model is open-sourced on platforms like Hugging Face and GitHub. Open-source software allows developers to access the source code freely, enabling modification and improvement. Alibaba Cloud has made over 200 generative AI models available to the public in a concerted effort to foster innovation in the field.
The launch comes at a time of heightened enthusiasm for AI in China, propelled by breakthroughs from companies like DeepSeek. As major tech players in the region, including Alibaba, are rapidly rolling out new, affordable models and services, the competition remains fierce. Recently, Baidu also introduced its own multimodal foundational and reasoning-focused models.
Earlier this year, Alibaba updated its Qwen 2.5 model and released a new iteration of its AI assistant tool, Quark. As part of its long-term strategy, the company announced a substantial investment of $53 billion over the next three years to enhance its cloud computing and AI infrastructure, representing a significant increase compared to its expenditures over the past decade.
Kai Wang, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, noted that large Chinese technology firms like Alibaba stand to gain significantly from the AI boom following DeepSeek’s developments, particularly because they are not only creating their own language models but also developing the crucial data centers needed for AI operations.
In another significant development, Alibaba recently confirmed its collaboration with Apple to integrate AI into iPhones sold within China, marking a major milestone for its AI initiatives.
Source
www.cnbc.com