- By Prateek Levi
- Wed, 29 Jan 2025 06:11 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Alibaba AI Chatbot: Chinese tech companies are making waves in the tech industry, and only recently a Chinese tech startup DeepSeek launched its AI chatbot platform that sent shockwaves through the industry and stock market as well, taking over the big tech in America. And just when we thought this was it, another Chinese tech giant Alibaba, made waves on Wednesday with the release of its latest AI model, Qwen 2.5-Max, which it claims surpasses the widely discussed DeepSeek-V3, according to Reuters.
The timing of this release, on the first day of the Lunar New Year when many in China are off work, signals the mounting pressure that DeepSeek's rapid rise has placed on both international and domestic competitors. DeepSeek, a relatively young startup, has captured significant attention in the AI space.
In an official statement shared on its WeChat account, Alibaba's cloud division stated, "Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms... almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3 and Llama-3.1-405B," referencing the cutting-edge AI models from OpenAI and Meta.
Alongside its competitors Tencent Holdings and Baidu, Alibaba has heavily invested in its cloud services and is actively competing for China’s top AI talent. As reported by Bloomberg, Alibaba is eager to recruit developers to its platform, striving for dominance in China’s booming AI industry.
ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: The Flagship Likely To Get A Massive Camera Upgrade, Tipster Reveals
DeepSeek, which was founded in Hangzhou, Alibaba's hometown, has been making a strong impact, even shaking up the global AI landscape. In fact, DeepSeek's AI assistant, powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model, was launched on January 10, followed by its R1 model on January 20. The effects were immediate—DeepSeek’s rapid ascent has even affected tech stocks, as investors began questioning the viability of costly AI projects from US-based companies compared to DeepSeek’s low-cost development model.
The rise of DeepSeek has ignited fierce competition within China’s tech sector. For example, just two days after DeepSeek launched its R1 model, ByteDance (the parent company of TikTok) fired back with an update to its flagship AI, claiming it outperformed OpenAI’s o1 in a crucial benchmark test. DeepSeek, however, already had its own bold claim, asserting that its R1 model could match or exceed OpenAI's o1 in multiple performance areas.
Now the battle to dominate the AI space is intensifying beyond the confines of one region and going beyond America and China, this only tells us that the stakes are as high as they can be. As DeepSeek continues to make its way through the AI market, players in both China and the global space are amping up their game to win this race.