() — Alibaba announced that it will launch its own ChatGPT-style tool, becoming the latest tech giant to jump on the chatbot bandwagon.
The Chinese giant said it was internally testing an AI-powered chatbot. He did not share details of when it would be released or what the app would be called.
“Frontier innovations, such as large language models and generative AI, have been our areas [de enfoque] since the formation of DAMO in 2017,” an Alibaba spokesperson told in a statement on Thursday, referring to an acronym for the company’s research division that focuses on artificial intelligence, data computing and robotics.
“As a technology leader, we will continue to invest to turn cutting-edge innovations into value-added applications for our customers and their end users.”
Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose 1.4% on Thursday morning.
Companies around the world are racing to develop and release their own versions of ChatGPT, the app that allows users to write essays or pass exams automatically.
The tool is based on a large language model, which is trained on a large amount of online data to generate compelling responses to user requests. Experts have long warned that these tools have the potential to spread inaccurate information.
This week, Google and Chinese search engine giant Baidu revealed plans to launch their own similar services.
Google’s tool, called Bard, will be released to the public in the coming weeks, while Baidu’s bot, called Wenxin Yiyan in Chinese or ERNIE Bot in English, will launch in March.
Bard suffered an embarrassing setback this week, however, after giving an incorrect answer during a public demonstration.
Shares of Google parent company Alphabet fell nearly 8% on Wednesday after the news.
Microsoft has also entered the game. The firm announced a makeover for its Bing search engine on Tuesday and said it would update the platform to answer questions, chat with users and produce content in response to prompts using artificial intelligence.
The company is also investing billions of dollars in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
— ‘s Catherine Thorbecke contributed to this report.
