Chinese e-commerce giant weighs into the global race for artificial intelligence (AI) with its own version of chatbot assistant. Alibaba announced the rollout of the ChatGPT-like product in the “near future.”
According to a BBC report from Apr. 11, the new product will be called Tongyi Qianwen, which translates to English as “seeking an answer by asking a thousand questions.” The chatbot will be integrated with Alibaba’s vast ecosystem of tech businesses, including workplace messaging app DingTalk and voice assistant smart speaker Tmall Genie.
Chatbot will be able to communicate in English and Mandarin at the first stage, while its task scope will include turning conversations into written notes, writing emails and drafting business proposals. The main intrigue, however, is whether Tongyi Qianwen would be able to work on more creative tasks, as its American counterpart already is.
ChatGPT was released by Microsoft in November 2022 and later integrated into the company’s internet browser Bing. Generative AI made global headlines due to its ability to provide sophisticated information responses in a casual chat-like manner, mimic different writing styles by command, and ultimately help users to create all kinds of texts, from academic research to movie scripts.
Related: How to use ChatGPT to learn a language
Earlier, Google’s parent company Alphabet and Chinese tech behemoth Baidu announced the development of their versions of AI and released their chatbots, named Bard and ErnieBot, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Cyberspace Administration of China will require chatbot developers to ensure that AI-generated content is “accurate” and doesn’t “endanger security.” What’s more interesting is that, according to Article 4 of CAC guidelines, made open for public feedback on Apr. 11, such content should “reflect the core values of socialism, and must not contain subversion of state power.”
