Alibaba intensified its push in the fast-growing field of generative AI on Thursday, unveiling new open-source artificial intelligence models and text-to-video AI technology.

The open-source models come from Alibaba's Qwen 2.5 family, which is part of its latest foundational large language model introduced in May. The company said it has developed over 100 new models, varying in size from 0.5 to 72 billion parameters—variables that influence an AI model's ability and performance.

According to Alibaba, these models are designed to cater to a wide range of AI applications across industries like automotive, gaming, and scientific research. The models offer capabilities in mathematics, coding, and support for over 29 languages.

While competitors like Baidu and OpenAI largely focus on closed-source approaches, Alibaba has embraced a hybrid strategy, incorporating both proprietary and open-source development to expand its portfolio of AI products.

The Chinese tech company also revealed a new text-to-video model under its Tongyi Wanxiang image generation family, entering the growing market of AI-generated video content. This move puts Alibaba in direct competition with global giants such as OpenAI, which has also been exploring text-to-video technology.

In August, ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, launched its text-to-video app, Jimeng AI, on Apple's App Store for Chinese users.

Chinese firms, much like their U.S. counterparts, are heavily investing in generative AI as they race to develop more comprehensive product offerings.

Source: Reuters