Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen AI Open to the Public

This week, Alibaba released its Tongyi Qianwen AI model to the public. This comes as the Chinese government has pushed forward new regulatory frameworks for governing AI while pushing to help develop domestic AI research.

In a report from Reuters, Alibaba seems to signal it gained regulatory approval to mass-market its AI model. This focus comes as China, the EU, and the United States look to balance AI governance and innovation.

In a post published on its WeChat account, the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Division said that organizations such as DingTalk, OPPO, and Zhejiang University have reached agreements to train their own LLMs, and/or develop new model applications which would be based on the Tongyi Qianwen model.

The same WeChat post also said that the group was looking to release an open-sourced version of the large language model. With the stated goal of it being for free commercial use “by the whole society.”

This announcement comes a week after the chief of Alibaba’s Cloud division, CEO Daniel Zhang stepped down. He was replaced by Alibaba Group CEO, Eddie Wu. In a letter to staff on Tuesday, he made clear that AI could play a critical role in Alibaba Group’s future strategy.

Eddie Wu stated, “Over the next decade, the most significant change agent will be the disruptions bought about by AI across all sectors,…If we don’t keep up with the changes of the AI era, we will be displaced.”

China over the last year has made efforts to find ways to govern AI while maintaining its own style of government. It has moved so rapidly in creating frameworks that Elon Musk said that China would take on AI regulations.

This is likely why there has been increased movement within the U.S. Congress to push forward with some concert policy surrounding AI. Though nothing for certain has been announced, tech leaders agreed this week that there needed to be some kind of regulation.

One thing is certain, AI regulations are on the horizon and governments are hoping to get ahead of the technology sooner than later.