Media365
The move marked a significant organisational change at Alibaba to promote the consumer use of its AI offerings after it secured a dominant position in open-source models for developers. The division’s top priority is to turn the Qwen chatbot into an accessible “super app” for use in scenarios including glasses, personal computers and cars. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The change combines the former Intelligent Information Business Group with the Intelligent Connectivity Business Group, the latter of which oversees consumer hardware such as the TmallGenie smart speaker and Alibaba’s AI glasses, both run by Wu.
The free, multipurpose Qwen, which can answer queries, transcribe audio, generate photos and videos, conduct research and produce slide decks, notched more than 10 million downloads in its first week of public beta, outpacing early uptake of ChatGPT and DeepSeek when they were launched, according to Alibaba.
