Alibaba
is
developing
a
ChatGPT-style
tool
that
is
currently
in
internal
testing,
joining
a
race
by
tech
companies
globally
to
show
they
are
up
to
speed
on
generative
artificial
intelligence
(AI)
developments.
The
Chinese
e-commerce
group’s
statement
came
after
the
21st
Century
Herald
newspaper
reported
that
Alibaba
is
developing
a
ChatGPT-like
dialogue
robot
which
is
currently
open
to
employees
for
testing.
When
asked
about
the
newspaper
report,
which
also
said
that
Alibaba
might
combine
the
technology
with
the
group’s
communication
app
DingTalk,
Alibaba
declined
to
comment.
The
company
said
it
had
been
focused
on
large
language
models
and
generative
AI
for
a
number
of
years.
Large
language
models
are
natural
language
processing
systems
which
are
trained
on
massive
volumes
of
text,
and
are
capable
of
answering
and
comprehending
questions
as
well
as
generating
new
text.
Shares
in
a
number
of
other
Chinese
AI
technology
companies
have
soared
in
the
past
few
days
due
to
investor
excitement
over
Open.Ai’s
ChatGPT,
which
can
generate
articles,
essays
and
jokes
in
response
to
prompts,
and
has
been
rated
the
fastest-growing
consumer
app
in
history.
Shares
in
Chinese
search
engine
giant
Baidu
jumped
by
15
percent
after
it
said
it
planned
to
complete
testing
of
its
“Ernie
bot”
in
March.
Google
owner
Alphabet
is
also
planning
its
own
chatbot
service
and
said
it
will
use
more
artificial
intelligence
for
its
search
engine.
Microsoft,
which
owns
Open.AI,
plans
to
tie
ChatGPT
in
with
its
search
engine
Bing.
On
Wednesday,
another
Chinese
tech
group,
JD.com,
said
it
was
looking
to
integrate
some
methods
and
technology
similar
to
ChatGPT’s
into
some
of
its
products,
such
as
its
e-commerce
platform’s
customer
service.
A
source
familiar
with
NetEase
told
Reuters
that
the
Chinese
gaming
company
also
plans
to
deploy
similar
large
language
models
technology
to
serve
its
education
business.
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