All posts tagged: Alibaba

Alibaba researchers unveil Marco-o1, an LLM with advanced reasoning capabilities

Alibaba researchers unveil Marco-o1, an LLM with advanced reasoning capabilities

Published by skeptic

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More The recent release of OpenAI o1 has brought great attention to large reasoning models (LRMs), and is inspiring new models aimed at solving complex problems classic language models often struggle with. Building on the success of o1 and the concept of LRMs, researchers at Alibaba have introduced Marco-o1, which enhances reasoning capabilities and tackles problems with open-ended solutions where clear standards and quantifiable rewards are absent. OpenAI o1 uses “inference-time scaling” to improve the model’s reasoning ability by giving it “time to think.” Basically, the model uses more compute cycles during inference to generate more tokens and review its responses, which improves its performance on tasks that require reasoning. o1 is renowned for its impressive reasoning capabilities, especially in tasks with standard answers such as mathematics, physics and coding.  However, many applications involve open-ended problems that lack clear solutions and quantifiable rewards. “We aimed to push the boundaries of LLMs even further, enhancing their reasoning abilities …

You Can Officially Buy a Diamond-Generating Machine on Alibaba

You Can Officially Buy a Diamond-Generating Machine on Alibaba

Published by José

Any takers? Lab Fad Diamonds may be forever. But their market value? That might prove less eternal. In a sign of the times spotted by Ars Technica, you can now buy a diamond-generating machine on the Chinese online marketplace Alibaba for the humble asking price of just $200,000. It’s as good an example as any that lab-grown hunks of pressurized carbon are easier to make than ever, as the mined-diamond industry continues to lose some of its shine — not to mention its market dominance. The machine, which originates in China — as most of these do — uses what’s known as the high pressure and high temperature process, or HPHT, which essentially mimics the extreme conditions that lead to natural diamond formation deep in the Earth. But to produce diamonds more efficiently, you’re gonna wanna shell out at least twice that amount for a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) machine. This gizmo works by placing a thin diamond “seed” into a vacuum chamber, in which carbon-rich gasses are heated into plasma, leaving pure carbon atoms …

Alibaba Exploring How to Deliver Cheap Plastic Garbage Via Space Rocket

Alibaba Exploring How to Deliver Cheap Plastic Garbage Via Space Rocket

Published by skeptic

Wait, are they serious? Specious Delivery Chinese rocket maker Space Epoch has announced a partnership with e-commerce platform and Alibaba-owned landfill generator Taobao to make deliveries via rocket around the world in just one hour — and to be entirely honest, the concept is so outlandish that we can’t quite tell if it’s an early April Fool’s joke. The announcement, posted to Chinese social media platform WeChat on March 31, details a new rocket dubbed “Yuanxing-1” that’s designed to launch up to ten tons of cargo inside a 120 cubic meter container into orbit. An animation shows a package being loaded into a rocket and shooting into space and then back down, spending just 25 minutes to traverse all of China before its cargo is emptied into a waiting van. It’s vaguely reminiscent of SpaceX’s much-larger and more capable Starship. The US Air Force is hoping to make use of the launch platform to ferry cargo across the globe as well. But whether it’s feasible, let alone economically viable, to make global rocket deliveries — especially …

Weird Alibaba: A 14-seater electric bus for cheaper than an e-bike

Weird Alibaba: A 14-seater electric bus for cheaper than an e-bike

Published by skeptic

Ah yes, good ol’ Alibaba. It’s the place to go whenever you want to see just how weird and wild the world of Chinese electric vehicles has become. It’s all fun and games to laugh and enjoy the weirdness, though it’s important to remember that China actually leads the world in real electric vehicles, too. But we’re not here for those boring things. We’re here to see a full-size bug-eyed electric bus shaped like a fish, and at the cost of a couple car payments in the US. That’s right, the beauty that has become the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week is a Finding Nemo-inspired (copied?) electric bus! At 920 kg (2,090 lb), this 14-seater weighs less than almost any two-seater out there. I guess there just isn’t much to it other than a ladder frame, some orange plastic body panels, and a battery bank. When you don’t need to worry about doors or crumples zones, I guess you can save a few pounds. But then again, it’s only 4.7 meters (15 …

What is Alibaba Qwen and its 6 LLM AI models?

What is Alibaba Qwen and its 6 LLM AI models?

Published by skeptic

Alibaba’s Qwen 1.5 is an enhanced version of their large language model series known as Qwen AI, developed by the Qwen team under Alibaba Cloud. It marks a significant advancement in language model technology, offering a range of models with varying sizes, including 0.5 billion to 72 billion parameters. This breadth of model sizes aims to cater to different computational needs and applications, showcasing impressive AI capabilities such as : Open-Sourcing: In line with Alibaba’s initiative to contribute to the open-source community, Qwen 1.5 has been made available across six sizes: 0.5B, 1.8B, 4B, 7B, 14B, and 72B parameters. This approach allows for widespread adoption and experimentation within the developer community. Improvements and Capabilities: Compared to its predecessors, Qwen AI 1.5 introduces significant improvements, particularly in chat models. These enhancements likely involve advancements in understanding and generating natural language, enabling more coherent and contextually relevant conversations. Multilingual Support: Like many contemporary large language models, Qwen 1.5 is expected to support multiple languages, facilitating its adoption in global applications and services. Versatility: The availability of the …

Build custom AI agents using Qwen-Agents based on Alibaba Qwen

Build custom AI agents using Qwen-Agents based on Alibaba Qwen

Published by skeptic

Alibaba’s Qwen 1.5 is an open-source AI model that ranges from 0.5 to 72 billion parameters, offering performance close to GPT-4. The Qwen-Agents framework, built on the Qwen 1.5 model, enables the development of large-scale, niche model applications that can follow instructions, utilize tools, plan, and remember. The framework includes a Chrome browser extension capable of interacting with web pages and documents, summarizing content, and automating writing tasks. Qwen-Agents offers a variety of functionalities, including function calling, a code interpreter, and the ability to retrieve and generate content (RAG). The framework allows for the creation of applications that can upload files, engage in multi-turn conversations, and perform data analysis. Examples of applications developed with Qwen-Agents include a browser assistant, PDF Q&A, and chatbots. The framework is versatile, with a repository providing examples and guidance on how to get started, including installation instructions and the integration of custom tools and plugins. Let’s dive a little deeper. Imagine stepping into a world where artificial intelligence (AI) is not just a tool, but a partner that understands you …

Alibaba headlines record funding for .5 billion Chinese AI startup

Alibaba headlines record funding for $2.5 billion Chinese AI startup

Published by skeptic

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is the headline backer supporting the largest single financing round for a significant Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) initiative. The e-commerce giant led the funding in Moonshot AI, with the $1 billion round turbo-charging the new company’s valuation to the tune of $2.5 billion, according to sources close to Bloomberg. Existing backers Monolith Management, Long-Z, and Hongshan also returned to the table. Alibaba’s backing for the startup appears to indicate the allocation of capital in the pursuit of growth, as it follows the path taken by the likes of Tencent Holdings and Microsoft in placing faith in Generative AI. It is the emerging technology powering applications such as ChatGPT as industries move toward AI. Change of direction Under the new leadership of chairman Joseph Tsai and CEO Eddie Wu, Alibaba aims to reverse its fortunes after two years of struggles beset by regulatory scrutiny and an economic downturn. The duo are leading the foray into new technologies with key investments while also diverging business lines into areas such as cloud tech and …

Four things to know about China’s new AI rules in 2024

Four things to know about China’s new AI rules in 2024

Published by skeptic

Some of those people are policymakers, who have been trying hard to respond to the problems AI products pose without reducing our ability to harness their power.  So at the beginning of this year, my colleagues and I looked around the world for signs of how AI regulations are likely to change this year. We summarized what we found here.  In China, one of the major moves to be on the lookout for in 2024 is whether the country will follow in the European Union’s footsteps and announce its own comprehensive AI Act. In June of last year, China’s top governing body released a list of legislation they were working on. An “Artificial Intelligence Law” appeared for the first time.  The Chinese government is already good at reacting to new technologies swiftly. China was probably the first country in the world to introduce legislation on generative AI mere months after ChatGPT’s big break. But a new comprehensive law could give China even more control over how AI disrupts (or doesn’t disrupt) the way things work …

As Temu shakes up global ecommerce, PDD nears overtaking Alibaba

As Temu shakes up global ecommerce, PDD nears overtaking Alibaba

Published by skeptic

PDD, the firm behind the fast-growing shopping app Temu, is shaking up China’s Big Tech club. On Thursday, news of Alibaba’s market cap sliding under that of PDD made headlines all over the Chinese internet. This development marked a historic shift in China’s e-commerce space, where for years Alibaba had held the crown jewel. Now the 24-year-old incumbent is facing its greatest challenges while eight-year-old PDD catches up with an impressive ascent. PDD, which saw its market value surge over $188 billion after reporting a doubling in revenue year-over-year, isn’t even trading at its all-time high, which was recorded in early 2021. The moment is a reminder of Alibaba’s gradual descent from its heights in recent times. Alibaba’s troubles began in late 2020 after its founder Jack Ma publicly criticized Chinese regulations, sending shockwaves through the country’s tech industry. His remarks were widely seen as the catalyst for the suspension of the initial public offering of Ant Group, the fintech giant he created. In the two years that followed, Beijing kicked off a series of …

China wraps up fintech crackdown with big fines on Tencent, Alibaba

China wraps up fintech crackdown with big fines on Tencent, Alibaba

Published by skeptic

The regulatory crackdown that has shaken up China’s fintech industry since late 2020 appears to be coming to a close with the imposition of hefty fines on the country’s two digital payments giants. Tencent, along with its payments subsidiary Tenpay, has been fined approximately 2.99 billion yuan ($410 million) by the People’s Bank of China for “its past regulatory breaches in relation to the provision of payment services in the mainland of China,” the company said in a filing on Friday. On the same day, the central bank announced it will slap a 7.123 billion yuan (roughly $1 billion) fine on Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba, for a range of illegal activities including those concerning corporate governance, consumer protection, banking and insurance, payments and settlement, anti-money laundering practices and fund sales. Together, Alibaba and Tencent enjoy a duopoly in China’s digital payments market, along with a range of other financial services that are offered through their respective payment platforms. China’s clampdown on fintech is part of its larger efforts to rein in the …