https://www.scmp.com/rss/524739/feed Qwen is a multipurpose artificial intelligence consumer app created by Alibaba as a personal AI assistant for professional and personal use, and powered by the Alibaba Cloud software. Its functionality includes research, image generation and slide generation. Alibaba Cloud is the AI and cloud computing unit of Hangzhou-based Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Minxiao Chang Minxiao Chang Alibaba Cloud captured more than 50 per cent of global open-source model downloads as of March following the release of its Qwen 3.5 model series, a new report has found. The finding underscores the dominance of Chinese models in the global open-source artificial intelligence landscape, though some US companies including OpenAI and Nvidia are also making early gains. Qwen reached nearly 1 billion cumulative downloads by March, far surpassing rivals like Meta Platforms’ Llama and DeepSeek,... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3349552/alibabas-qwen-family-captures-over-50-global-open-source-downloads-report-finds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3349552/alibabas-qwen-family-captures-over-50-global-open-source-downloads-report-finds?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Apr 2026 02:00:14 +0000 Ann Cao Ann Cao Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud and artificial intelligence unit is expected to remain a prime engine for the March quarter, with the growth rate forecast to accelerate as the company steps up AI monetisation and reshuffles its AI businesses, according to analysts. Cloud revenue growth was projected to increase to around 40 per cent during the period, up from 36 per cent in the December quarter, analysts said. The growth momentum was expected to be supported by “a robust surge in token usage”,... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3349508/alibaba-cloud-growth-forecast-accelerate-ai-push-higher-service-charges-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3349508/alibaba-cloud-growth-forecast-accelerate-ai-push-higher-service-charges-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:30:13 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow There was a surprise guest speaker at Nvidia’s widely watched GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, California, last month: Yang Zhilin, the founder of Beijing-based Moonshot AI, the developer behind the Kimi family of foundational artificial intelligence models. Amid heated rhetoric about US-China AI competition, which some have likened to an “arms race”, the participation of a Chinese AI start-up’s CEO at the flagship event of American chipmaking giant Nvidia might have struck some as... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3348973/competition-or-co-opetition-how-convergence-shaping-ai-race-between-china-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3348973/competition-or-co-opetition-how-convergence-shaping-ai-race-between-china-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Apr 2026 02:00:12 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen “Tokens are the new commodity,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, clad in his iconic leather jacket, at the company’s annual flagship developer conference, GTC, last week in San Jose, California. The chip designer’s helmsman wants to recast his company not as a silicon vendor but as the architect of what he calls “AI [artificial intelligence] factories”, whose standard product is “token”. While Nvidia is busy writing the rules of a new token economy, a parallel debate is emerging in China around the... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3347495/how-china-could-dominate-ai-eras-tokenomics-vast-power-grids-and-low-cost-models?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3347495/how-china-could-dominate-ai-eras-tokenomics-vast-power-grids-and-low-cost-models?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Mar 2026 23:30:22 +0000 Ji Siqi Ji Siqi China’s artificial intelligence breakthroughs in recent years stemmed from the country’s strategic strengthening of its power grid, commitment to open-source models and complete manufacturing supply chain, according to Joe Tsai, chairman of Alibaba Group Holding. “Currently, geopolitical complexities are deeply affecting supply chain security and the sharing of technological achievements,” Tsai said in a speech on Sunday at the China Development Forum 2026 in Beijing. “In this era and... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3347485/alibaba-chairman-joe-tsai-credits-chinas-ai-edge-power-grid-open-source-models?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3347485/alibaba-chairman-joe-tsai-credits-chinas-ai-edge-power-grid-open-source-models?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Mar 2026 11:46:56 +0000 Coco Feng Coco Feng Alibaba Group Holding unveiled the preview version of its most powerful artificial intelligence model to date, solidifying its position as China’s leader in the race to catch American giants like Anthropic, Google and OpenAI. Qwen3.5-Max-Preview, the flagship model of Alibaba’s Qwen 3.5 family, is now available on Arena, formerly known as LMArena, a model performance community created by researchers from UC Berkeley. Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, unveiled the model on... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3347272/preview-alibabas-strongest-ai-model-tops-chinese-peers-ranking-lags-us-rivals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3347272/preview-alibabas-strongest-ai-model-tops-chinese-peers-ranking-lags-us-rivals?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Mar 2026 07:00:08 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding has reshuffled its artificial intelligence operations, creating a new top level business group and placing CEO Eddie Wu Yongming in charge as the AI and e-commerce powerhouse accelerates its push into the emerging token economy. The company said on Monday it had established the Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) Business Group, which brings all its core AI teams and products together under one umbrella. This includes Tongyi Laboratory – the developer of Alibaba’s Qwen series of... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3346789/alibaba-reshuffles-ai-units-new-token-hub-group-led-ceo-eddie-wu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3346789/alibaba-reshuffles-ai-units-new-token-hub-group-led-ceo-eddie-wu?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Mar 2026 13:19:03 +0000 Coco Feng Coco Feng Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has collaborated with researchers from Tencent Holdings and the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on a new AI-based method that can improve the accuracy of three-dimensional design. The team proposed Pointer-CAD, a framework built on Alibaba Group Holding’s Qwen 2.5 model, which helps designers select edges or faces of a 3D object, increasing the accuracy and efficiency in computer-aided design (CAD), a tool widely used in engineering, manufacturing... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3345687/chinese-start-deepseek-teams-tencent-hku-ai-tool-sharpen-3d-design?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3345687/chinese-start-deepseek-teams-tencent-hku-ai-tool-sharpen-3d-design?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Mar 2026 03:00:12 +0000 Yulu Ao,Ann Cao,Wency Chen Yulu Ao,Ann Cao,Wency Chen China’s most powerful economic regions – the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area – are racing to meet President Xi Jinping’s call for breakthroughs in core technologies including artificial intelligence, as Beijing maps out priorities for the coming 15th five-year plan during the “two sessions”. As part of the annual meeting on Friday, provincial and municipal leaders of Zhejiang province outlined an ambitious strategy to become a key area of AI development and cement the province’s... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3345770/chinas-zhejiang-guangdong-provinces-vie-heed-xi-jinpings-call-innovation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3345770/chinas-zhejiang-guangdong-provinces-vie-heed-xi-jinpings-call-innovation?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Mar 2026 13:41:21 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding is forming a dedicated internal task force headed by CEO Eddie Wu Yongming in a bid to funnel greater resources into its foundational AI model development efforts. On Thursday, Wu said in a letter to members of the company’s artificial intelligence research lab Tongyi that the task force would “jointly coordinate group-wide resources to accelerate foundational model development”. “In technology, standing still means falling behind,” Wu said in the letter, which was provided... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3345524/alibaba-sets-new-task-force-led-ceo-eddie-wu-focus-ai-model-development?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3345524/alibaba-sets-new-task-force-led-ceo-eddie-wu-focus-ai-model-development?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Mar 2026 06:00:12 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding has recruited a research scientist from Google DeepMind to bolster development efforts for its Qwen artificial intelligence models, in an internal restructuring that has seen the departure of previous technical lead Lin Junyang. While no successor to Lin was announced, former Google senior staff research scientist Zhou Hao was joining Alibaba as head of post-training research, replacing Yu Bowen, who also departed this week, two sources said. Zhou, who holds a PhD from the... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3345471/alibaba-recruits-google-deepmind-contributor-join-qwen-ai-team-sources-say?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3345471/alibaba-recruits-google-deepmind-contributor-join-qwen-ai-team-sources-say?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:36:39 +0000 Mia Nurmamat,Ben Jiang Mia Nurmamat,Ben Jiang In an unprecedented Chinese New Year marketing blitz, Alibaba Group Holding, Baidu, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings spent an estimated 8 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) to turn their artificial intelligence assistants into household names, according to Morgan Stanley. Now the dust is settling. A week after the holiday ended, early data offers a first glimpse into how China’s AI landscape is evolving and which players gained lasting traction from the spending spree. Morgan Stanley said all platforms... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3345301/chinas-ai-red-packet-battle-burns-through-us1-billion-will-users-stick-around?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3345301/chinas-ai-red-packet-battle-burns-through-us1-billion-will-users-stick-around?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Mar 2026 13:00:11 +0000 Zhao Ziwen Zhao Ziwen Chinese researchers have released the world’s first open-source text-to-speech (TTS) model that unifies more than 20 Arabic dialects in an AI framework, a move poised to expand China’s technological influence in the Middle East, according to analysts. Led by Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s X-LANCE Lab – one of China’s top audiovisual and language processing research entities – the model is named Habibi, meaning “my dear” in Arabic. In presenting their findings, the research team spearheaded by... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3344955/meet-habibi-chinese-ai-uniting-20-arabic-dialects-middle-east-first?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3344955/meet-habibi-chinese-ai-uniting-20-arabic-dialects-middle-east-first?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Feb 2026 06:00:26 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Chinese open-source artificial intelligence models, led by those from MiniMax AI and Moonshot AI, have topped global token usage, ending a year of market dominance for US developers, according to data from OpenRouter. Online AI hosting platform OpenRouter’s latest ranking reflected the increased international demand for Chinese open-source models on its site following a series of new releases. Launched around two weeks ago, the M2.5 from Shanghai-based MiniMax emerged as the most popular AI... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3344587/chinas-minimax-moonshot-top-ai-token-use-ranking-ending-year-us-dominance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3344587/chinas-minimax-moonshot-top-ai-token-use-ranking-ending-year-us-dominance?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Feb 2026 11:30:07 +0000 Ann Cao Ann Cao Chinese tech giants claimed a victory after a promotional giveaway campaign for their artificial intelligence services during the Lunar New Year, touting surging user numbers and the adoption of AI as part of holiday consumption. During the period, Alibaba Group Holding’s AI app Qwen saw nearly 200 million orders placed, according to data released by the company on Monday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Among the users were more than four million people aged 60 and above who... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3344432/ai-apps-soar-china-lunar-new-year-giveaway-battle-boosts-user-growth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3344432/ai-apps-soar-china-lunar-new-year-giveaway-battle-boosts-user-growth?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:30:09 +0000 Gerui Wang Gerui Wang The 2026 Spring Festival Gala, one of the world’s most-watched television events, featured a dazzling array of humanoid robots. They performed martial arts, executed intricate sword dances and even took part in a comedy skit alongside human celebrities. While parts of the world still view humanoid robots with a mixture of fear and suspicion, as potential job-stealers or sci-fi villains, China is increasingly embracing them as partners in work, entertainment and daily life. Amid the escalating... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3344083/humans-vs-robots-china-begs-disagree?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3344083/humans-vs-robots-china-begs-disagree?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Feb 2026 21:30:09 +0000 Coco Feng Coco Feng Major Chinese technology companies, including ByteDance and Baidu, are aggressively expanding their US-based research and development teams, targeting high-level artificial intelligence and semiconductor recruits in key American tech hubs. The overseas hiring spree underscores these “big tech” firms’ growing ambitions to build up their skilled workforce in AI systems development and semiconductor design amid increased competition in their home market. Social media giant ByteDance, the parent... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3344212/chinas-tech-giants-pursue-ai-semiconductor-talent-us-competition-intensifies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3344212/chinas-tech-giants-pursue-ai-semiconductor-talent-us-competition-intensifies?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Feb 2026 13:00:09 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Cloud has unveiled its next-generation open artificial intelligence model, Qwen-3.5, in a move set to have major implications for the global AI race between China and the US. The much-anticipated release, timed on the eve of the Lunar New Year, capped a frenetic week in which nearly every major Chinese AI developer rolled out new flagship models. The two new 3.5-series models were made available on Alibaba’s cloud platform Model Studio on Monday afternoon. The new Qwen-3.5-Open-Source... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343738/alibaba-unveils-qwen-35-sharpening-global-race-spread-ai-models?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343738/alibaba-unveils-qwen-35-sharpening-global-race-spread-ai-models?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Feb 2026 09:19:44 +0000 Wency Chen,Vincent Chow Wency Chen,Vincent Chow China’s leading humanoid robotics companies dominated the opening of this year’s Spring Festival Gala, the annual variety spectacle staged by state broadcaster CCTV that offers a rare nationwide marketing platform akin to the US Super Bowl, highlighting the central role of the industry in Beijing’s industrial policy. Four robotics firms – Hangzhou-based Unitree, Wuxi-based Magiclab, Beijing-based Galbot and Noetix – had announced partnerships with this year’s gala in deals said to be valued at... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343634/chinas-tech-companies-vie-attention-cctvs-festival-gala-years-biggest-stage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343634/chinas-tech-companies-vie-attention-cctvs-festival-gala-years-biggest-stage?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Feb 2026 22:00:15 +0000 Ann Cao Ann Cao China’s top market regulator has summoned the country’s leading tech companies to demand an end to “involutionary” competition, at the time when the companies are pouring billions of yuan into a Lunar New Year promotional blitz to win over users for services including artificial intelligence apps. The companies summoned on Friday were Alibaba Group Holding, ByteDance’s Douyin, Baidu, Tencent Holdings, JD.com, Meituan and Taobao Instant Commerce, Alibaba’s on-demand delivery unit, the State... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343614/beijing-warns-tech-giants-curb-involution-amid-ai-giveaway-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343614/beijing-warns-tech-giants-curb-involution-amid-ai-giveaway-war?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Feb 2026 06:30:07 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Chinese consumers placed over 120 million orders on Alibaba Cloud’s flagship artificial intelligence app Qwen within six days, signalling growing acceptance of AI-powered shopping as the company joined other mainland Chinese tech giants in a multibillion-yuan holiday campaign. Nearly half the orders came from residents in counties and hinterland areas, with around 1.56 million people aged 60 and above making their first online purchases through Qwen, according to a statement on Thursday from... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3343289/alibabas-qwen-tops-120-million-orders-6-days-amid-chinas-ai-shopping-battle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3343289/alibabas-qwen-tops-120-million-orders-6-days-amid-chinas-ai-shopping-battle?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:02:39 +0000 Iris Deng Iris Deng In an intensifying giveaway war among artificial intelligence apps in China, TikTok parent ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot has joined the fray to offer robots and drones, following multibillion-yuan campaigns from Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings to hand out cash and bubble tea. ByteDance said on Tuesday that it planned to give more than 100,000 tech products as gifts, as well as red packets of up to 8,888 yuan (US$1,284), through lucky draws on the Doubao app on the eve of Lunar New... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3343104/bytedance-joins-alibaba-tencent-offer-freebies-bid-acquire-ai-app-users?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3343104/bytedance-joins-alibaba-tencent-offer-freebies-bid-acquire-ai-app-users?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:19 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Hours after Alibaba Group Holding began offering freebies including bubble tea through its artificial intelligence app Qwen on Friday, a surge in downloads pushed the chatbot past Tencent Holdings’ Yuanbao to the top of China’s Apple App Store, climbing from 10th place a day earlier. More than 10 million free orders – worth 250 million yuan (US$36 million) – were placed within nine hours using vouchers capped at 25 yuan through Qwen, its team said on its official Weibo account. The surge in... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342702/alibabas-bubble-tea-giveaway-pushes-qwen-past-tencents-yuanbao-top-china-app-store?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342702/alibabas-bubble-tea-giveaway-pushes-qwen-past-tencents-yuanbao-top-china-app-store?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Feb 2026 12:35:13 +0000 Iris Deng Iris Deng Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings aims to replicate the success of WeChat Pay by splashing cash for its artificial intelligence app Yuanbao, but analysts are sceptical about whether subsidies can move the needle in the increasingly crowded market. Yuanbao’s 1 billion yuan (US$144 million) promotional campaign, which gives out cash through digital red packets to drive adoption, kicked off with a high-profile launch on Sunday, as many users woke up to find their WeChat groups flooded with... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342111/red-packet-rumble-will-tencents-cash-giveaway-work-again-crowded-ai-market?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342111/red-packet-rumble-will-tencents-cash-giveaway-work-again-crowded-ai-market?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:00:15 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding has joined rivals including Tencent Holdings and Baidu in rolling out Spring Festival red-packet giveaways to drive mass-market adoption of its artificial intelligence apps, committing 3 billion yuan (US$432 million) to spur spending across its ecosystem as it seeks to extend its edge in foundational models to consumer-facing products. The Hangzhou-based e-commerce and AI giant said on Monday that its AI app Qwen would anchor a Spring Festival campaign across its flagship... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342085/alibabas-qwen-ramps-ai-app-race-spring-festival-giveaway-blitz?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3342085/alibabas-qwen-ramps-ai-app-race-spring-festival-giveaway-blitz?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:45:07 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Education in China’s countryside should shift away from rote-based learning to focus on nurturing curiosity and creativity in the artificial intelligence era, Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma said in a meeting with rural teachers on Monday. In remarks published by the Jack Ma Foundation on Tuesday, former English teacher Ma said the dawn of the AI era posed a challenge for rural education, but also presented an opportunity to “return to the fundamentals of education”. Alibaba owns the South... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3341543/teach-our-children-well-jack-ma-urges-changes-chinas-rural-education-ai-era?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3341543/teach-our-children-well-jack-ma-urges-changes-chinas-rural-education-ai-era?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Jan 2026 11:00:09 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding and Moonshot AI have unveiled their latest flagship artificial intelligence models, narrowing the gap with US industry leaders OpenAI and Google DeepMind. The new models from two of China’s leading AI developers mark the first major Chinese model releases of this year, as industry observers continue to closely monitor the gap between the US and China in developing cutting-edge foundational models. Alibaba Cloud announced its biggest-ever model, Qwen3-Max-Thinking, on... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341380/chinas-alibaba-moonshot-claim-latest-flagship-ai-models-challenge-openai-google?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341380/chinas-alibaba-moonshot-claim-latest-flagship-ai-models-challenge-openai-google?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:30:08 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Baidu has merged two of its consumer app businesses into a new artificial intelligence-focused unit, stepping up its push into China’s fast-evolving and fiercely contested market for consumer AI applications. The company combined its online document-sharing business Wenku and consumer-oriented cloud storage operation Wangpan to form the Personal Super Intelligence Business Group (PSIG), according to a source familiar with the matter. The move marks one of Baidu’s largest reorganisations in the... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341294/chinas-baidu-merges-key-app-businesses-drive-consumer-ai-push?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341294/chinas-baidu-merges-key-app-businesses-drive-consumer-ai-push?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:00:09 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Baidu on Thursday unveiled Ernie 5.0, a multimodal artificial intelligence model with 2.4 trillion parameters, as use of the Chinese tech giant’s AI-powered namesake assistant climbed to 200 million monthly active users. The omni-modal foundation model, capable of processing text, images, audio and video, is the Beijing-based company’s most advanced to date. The model was first previewed in November and has since climbed the rankings. A leaderboard published last week by LMArena showed... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340866/baidu-launches-ernie-50-firms-ai-assistant-users-reach-200-million-month?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340866/baidu-launches-ernie-50-firms-ai-assistant-users-reach-200-million-month?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Jan 2026 12:30:15 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Alibaba’s ambition to turn its chatbot app into a powerful AI assistant that dramatically changes the way people interact with smart devices appears to be paying off, according to users and analysts. Instead of repeatedly swiping a screen to complete a task, a user can tell the Qwen app to conduct a range of tasks from ordering drinks to paying electricity bills after the Hangzhou-based technology giant links it to the group’s existing apps like shopping platform Taobao and payment interface... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340150/alibabas-upgraded-qwen-chatbot-app-receives-warm-consumer-reception?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340150/alibabas-upgraded-qwen-chatbot-app-receives-warm-consumer-reception?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:45:08 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Alibaba Group Holding has rolled out a major update to its flagship Qwen artificial intelligence app, integrating it more deeply into the company’s expansive ecosystem, from online shopping to travel booking, as it pushes to make the service an AI-powered gateway to daily life. The upgrade came as Qwen surpassed 100 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of January, said Wu Jia, vice-president of Alibaba, at a corporate event on Thursday in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, where... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3339968/alibabas-qwen-ai-app-hits-100-million-users-upgrade-broadens-role-daily-life?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3339968/alibabas-qwen-ai-app-hits-100-million-users-upgrade-broadens-role-daily-life?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Jan 2026 05:44:55 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding’s artificial intelligence strategy is defined by a commitment to open-source models, the company said on Tuesday, following a year of soaring adoption for its suite of AI services. The statement came as Alibaba’s stock in New York rose more than 10 per cent on Monday, following news that its flagship Qwen family of AI models surpassed 700 million downloads on the developer platform Hugging Face, making it the world’s most widely adopted open-source AI system. “A defining... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3339765/alibaba-reaffirms-open-source-ai-commitment-tech-giant-hails-qwen-achievements?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3339765/alibaba-reaffirms-open-source-ai-commitment-tech-giant-hails-qwen-achievements?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jan 2026 13:30:10 +0000 Iris Deng Iris Deng Ant International, the Singapore-based spin-off of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, has teamed up with Google on standards for artificial intelligence agents that complete online shopping tasks for users, as AI continues to transform the e-commerce sector. Ant International said in a statement on Monday it would endorse the US search and AI giant’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard that powers agentic commerce. “By leveraging our leading payment capabilities, Ant International... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3339580/ant-international-teams-google-use-universal-commerce-protocol?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3339580/ant-international-teams-google-use-universal-commerce-protocol?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jan 2026 09:00:15 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Alibaba Cloud’s flagship Qwen family of artificial intelligence models surpassed 700 million downloads as of January on the developer platform Hugging Face, which made it the world’s most widely used open-source AI system. According to research published by Interconnects.ai, citing data from Hugging Face, estimated Qwen downloads as of December alone exceeded the combined total of the next eight most popular models on the platform globally, including those from Meta Platforms and OpenAI, as well... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3339568/alibabas-qwen-family-hits-700-million-downloads-lead-global-open-source-ai-adoption?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3339568/alibabas-qwen-family-hits-700-million-downloads-lead-global-open-source-ai-adoption?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jan 2026 07:01:21 +0000 Ann Cao Ann Cao Amap, the mapping and navigation platform of Alibaba Group Holding, has launched new features powered by its top-ranking world model, as the tech giant doubles down on artificial intelligence to upgrade its massive consumer ecosystem. “Flying Street View”, a new feature on the Amap app based on the unit’s self-developed system designed to simulate real-world environments, allowed users to take 3D virtual tours of restaurants and other offline venues, the company said at a launch event in... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3338964/alibabas-amap-rolls-out-ai-powered-3d-virtual-tours-offline-destinations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3338964/alibabas-amap-rolls-out-ai-powered-3d-virtual-tours-offline-destinations?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Jan 2026 02:00:27 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang On the last day of 2025, DeepSeek published a new technical paper, with founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng among the 19 co-authors, about “manifold-constrained hyper-connections” – a general framework for training artificial intelligence systems at scale, which suggested “promising directions for the evolution of foundational models”. That release was a fitting reminder to the world, especially during the peak of the Christmas holiday season, about Chinese AI companies’ sharpened focus on innovation... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3338528/tech-war-china-takes-confident-strides-develop-more-ai-innovation-2026?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3338528/tech-war-china-takes-confident-strides-develop-more-ai-innovation-2026?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Jan 2026 03:00:22 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang ByteDance-owned Doubao remained mainland China’s top consumer artificial intelligence app in December, according to a report, as the country’s Big Tech companies continued to outpace emerging start-ups in this market. Doubao, a ChatGPT-like app, had 155 million weekly active users in the second week of December, according to data released on Tuesday by business intelligence service provider QuestMobile. It said that number was nearly double the 81.56 million total recorded by DeepSeek’s... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3337650/bytedance-other-major-chinese-tech-firms-dominate-local-consumer-ai-market-report?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3337650/bytedance-other-major-chinese-tech-firms-dominate-local-consumer-ai-market-report?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Dec 2025 12:00:08 +0000 Ann Cao Ann Cao Alibaba Group Holding is folding its mapping and navigation platform Amap into its Qwen artificial intelligence app, in a tie-up the company says will sharpen Qwen’s real-world “life services” just weeks after the app’s debut. The integration, announced on Thursday, lets Qwen users handle travel and lifestyle requests – from restaurant and hotel recommendations to route planning and turn-by-turn navigation – in a single conversational interface. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Alibaba... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3336935/alibaba-deepens-ecosystem-push-qwen-amap-tie-routes-restaurants-and-hotels?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3336935/alibaba-deepens-ecosystem-push-qwen-amap-tie-routes-restaurants-and-hotels?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Dec 2025 12:30:12 +0000 Wency Chen,Coco Feng Wency Chen,Coco Feng Tencent Holdings has initiated a major restructuring at its artificial intelligence group with the promotion of recent high-profile recruit Vinces Yao Shunyu, a former researcher at OpenAI. Without mentioning his Chinese name, Shenzhen-based Tencent’s announcement on Wednesday came with a photo of Yao. He was tasked to lead the company’s new AI infrastructure efforts, including the development of large language models (LLMs). Yao’s official position is chief AI scientist under the CEO’s office... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3336811/tencent-restructures-ai-operations-promotes-high-profile-recruit-chief-ai-scientist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3336811/tencent-restructures-ai-operations-promotes-high-profile-recruit-chief-ai-scientist?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Dec 2025 12:45:51 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Chinese artificial intelligence models from Alibaba Cloud and DeepSeek have edged out US-developed models to feature in the top six of a new ranking of leading AI models’ alignment with Christian worldviews. Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen and DeepSeek’s R1 models were evaluated along with a host of leading US models as part of Colorado-based AI company Gloo’s Flourishing AI Christian (FAI-C) benchmark, which was launched on Monday. Led by former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, Gloo said its benchmark tested AI... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3336642/chinas-qwen-and-deepseek-edge-out-us-ai-models-christian-values-benchmark?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3336642/chinas-qwen-and-deepseek-edge-out-us-ai-models-christian-values-benchmark?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Dec 2025 23:00:09 +0000 Ben Jiang,Vincent Chow Ben Jiang,Vincent Chow US start-up OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT on November 30, three years ago, sent China’s technology industry scrambling to get up to speed on the latest artificial intelligence developments. Chinese government authorities sent urgent requests to various experts, including professors from Tsinghua University, to provide briefings on the implications of generative AI technology, according to people with knowledge of the matter. China’s Big Tech firms and ambitious start-ups rushed to roll out their... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3336236/sea-change-china-narrows-ai-gap-us-three-years-after-initial-shock-chatgpt?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3336236/sea-change-china-narrows-ai-gap-us-three-years-after-initial-shock-chatgpt?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Dec 2025 15:00:09 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow When US tech giant Meta Platforms released its flagship Llama family of artificial intelligence models in February 2023, they were open-sourced, a move that singled it out among global AI model developers at the time. That September, one of the many derivatives of Llama was announced: Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen. The first generation of Qwen adopted Llama’s training process and cited Meta's seminal research findings in its accompanying technical report. Out of deference, the Chinese researchers even... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3336243/role-reversal-meta-adopts-qwen-chinese-ai-becomes-industry-foundation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3336243/role-reversal-meta-adopts-qwen-chinese-ai-becomes-industry-foundation?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Dec 2025 02:00:16 +0000 Vincent Chow,Ben Jiang Vincent Chow,Ben Jiang American tech giant Meta Platforms is reportedly using an open-source artificial intelligence model developed by Alibaba Group Holding to reinvigorate its faltering AI efforts in another likely win for Chinese AI. According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, Facebook owner Meta was using Alibaba’s Qwen model, along with other open-source models from Google and OpenAI, as part of the training process for a new model code-named Avocado, which was expected to be released in the spring. The report... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3336073/ai-race-meta-reported-use-alibabas-qwen-avocado-model-likely-win-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3336073/ai-race-meta-reported-use-alibabas-qwen-avocado-model-likely-win-china?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:00:08 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding said on Tuesday that it will set up a new division to push the consumer use of artificial intelligence applications based on its Qwen family of large language models. The new business unit, Qwen Consumer Business Group, led by Alibaba vice-president Wu Jia, will oversee the Qwen chatbot app, the Quark AI assistant and cloud drive, AI hardware products, the UC Browser and the online reading platform Shuqi. The move marked a significant organisational change at Alibaba to... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3335793/alibaba-creates-new-unit-push-consumer-use-its-qwen-ai-models?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3335793/alibaba-creates-new-unit-push-consumer-use-its-qwen-ai-models?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Dec 2025 02:00:11 +0000 Eunice Xu Eunice Xu China’s open-source artificial intelligence models accounted for nearly 30 per cent of total global use of the technology, while Chinese-language prompts ranked second in token volume behind English, according to a report. This year’s surge in open-source large language model (LLM) usage around the world had been fuelled by Chinese-developed systems, including Alibaba Group Holding’s Qwen family of models, DeepSeek’s V3 and Moonshot AI’s Kimi K2, according to a recently published report by... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3335602/chinas-open-source-models-make-30-global-ai-usage-led-qwen-and-deepseek?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3335602/chinas-open-source-models-make-30-global-ai-usage-led-qwen-and-deepseek?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Dec 2025 09:30:07 +0000 SCMP Editorial SCMP Editorial Whenever an American breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) is announced, China is not far behind. That has long alarmed policymakers and industry insiders in the United States. Whether by handicapping China with dodgy trade sanctions and export restrictions with its allies, or handing out billions of taxpayer dollars to favoured industry players, the US just can’t shake off its Chinese competitors. China’s DeepSeek seemingly came out of nowhere when it launched in late 2023 a free,... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/comment/article/3335201/chinas-low-cost-ai-showing-americas-high-cost-tech-model?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/comment/article/3335201/chinas-low-cost-ai-showing-americas-high-cost-tech-model?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Dec 2025 23:15:17 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding’s new flagship artificial intelligence app Qwen was the fastest growing AI app in the world in November, according to third-party data released on Wednesday. Qwen recorded the highest growth in monthly active users (MAU) among AI products globally at 149 per cent, data compiled by AI product popularity tracker Aicpb.com showed. Its MAUs for the app reached 18.34 million, making it the world’s 24th most used AI app just two weeks into its public beta. Qwen’s success stemmed... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3335032/alibabas-qwen-app-becomes-worlds-fastest-growing-ai-app-maus-surge-149?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3335032/alibabas-qwen-app-becomes-worlds-fastest-growing-ai-app-maus-surge-149?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Dec 2025 09:00:16 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow A research team led by Alibaba Cloud was the only group from China to receive a top award at this year’s NeurIPS, or the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, billed as the artificial intelligence industry’s most prestigious annual event. The research could lead to drastic improvements in the efficiency of large language models (LLMs), significantly reducing both training and inference costs for Alibaba Group Holding’s next generation of Qwen models without sacrificing... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334526/alibaba-cloud-team-wins-top-ai-award-breakthrough-model-efficiency?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334526/alibaba-cloud-team-wins-top-ai-award-breakthrough-model-efficiency?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Nov 2025 13:00:19 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding’s new multipurpose artificial intelligence consumer app, Qwen, has the potential to become China’s “super-app” in the AI era in the same way Tencent Holdings’ WeChat defined the mobile internet age, analysts say. Powered by Alibaba Cloud’s own model series of the same name, Qwen quickly jumped to fourth overall on Apple’s app store for free apps in Hong Kong and fifth in mainland China on its second day of beta testing. The app, billed as “the best personal AI assistant”,... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3333276/alibaba-bets-everything-app-qwen-define-ai-era-global-consumers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3333276/alibaba-bets-everything-app-qwen-define-ai-era-global-consumers?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Nov 2025 13:00:09 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Alibaba Group Holding has officially launched its multipurpose artificial intelligence app, Qwen, promising a “free-for-all” gateway for consumers to access a variety of AI-powered services, from mapping to shopping. Qwen, powered by Alibaba Cloud’s open-source model series of the same name and marketed as “the best personal AI assistant”, serves not only as a chatbot but also as a comprehensive AI tool designed to meet user needs in both professional and personal contexts, the company said on... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3333062/alibabas-qwen-app-challenges-ai-subscription-models-free-access?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3333062/alibabas-qwen-app-challenges-ai-subscription-models-free-access?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Nov 2025 07:00:08 +0000