# What is Tongyi Qianwen, Alibaba's new AI model, and what will it do?

Date: 2023-04-12 · Author: Robert Scales · https://guidetoartificialintelligence.com/en/learn/what-is-tongyi-qianwen/

**Answer:** Tongyi Qianwen is a large language model unveiled by Alibaba Cloud on 11 April 2023 that writes and converses in Chinese and English, and that Alibaba plans to build into all of its apps, starting with the DingTalk workplace app and the Tmall Genie smart speaker. For now it is open only for beta testing by business customers and developers in China, who can also adapt it with their own data.

Yesterday, 11 April 2023, Alibaba joined the race that ChatGPT started. At a livestreamed event, the Chinese technology giant showed off **Tongyi Qianwen**, its own large language model, and said it will eventually power every app the company runs, from workplace messaging to shopping and smart speakers.

The name gives a hint of the ambition. According to Reuters, Tongyi Qianwen translates roughly as "truth from a thousand questions." In a filmed demonstration, the model drafted invitation letters, planned travel itineraries and advised shoppers on what makeup to buy.

## What happened, and who is behind it

The model comes from **Alibaba Cloud**, the cloud computing and AI division of Alibaba Group. Daniel Zhang, who leads both Alibaba Group and the cloud unit, spoke at the event; in the company's press release he calls this "a technological watershed moment driven by generative AI and cloud computing." Jingren Zhou, the cloud unit's chief technology officer, described a new phase in which cloud computing and AI models work hand in hand.

Tongyi Qianwen works in Chinese and English. It is built on **Tongyi**, Alibaba's own framework of pre-trained models, which also includes models that turn text into images and short videos. The announcement gives no technical details such as the model's size or training data.

## What it will do

Alibaba plans to bring the model into its products step by step. Two come first:

| Product | What it is | What Tongyi Qianwen adds |
|---|---|---|
| DingTalk | Alibaba's workplace messaging and collaboration app | Summarizes and transcribes meetings, writes emails, drafts business proposals and marketing plans; turns a photo of a paper sketch into a simple app |
| Tmall Genie | Alibaba's voice assistant and smart home devices | Livelier conversations: stories for children, healthy recipes, travel tips, workout music suggestions |

Later, Alibaba says, the model will reach the rest of its businesses, including e-commerce, search, navigation and entertainment. Features for understanding images and creating pictures from text are also planned.

The bigger business is selling the model to other companies. Alibaba Cloud will let clients **fine-tune** Tongyi Qianwen, which means training it further on their own documents and know-how so it becomes an expert in their business, inside a secure cloud environment. Building a large language model from scratch requires an expensive first stage called **pre-training**, in which the model reads enormous amounts of general text. Fine-tuning a ready-made model skips that cost.

Here is how a company might use it once it has access:

1. A logistics firm applies for the beta through Alibaba Cloud.
2. It fine-tunes the model on its delivery manuals, customer emails and route data.
3. Staff then ask it, in Chinese or English, to answer customer questions or summarize delivery problems.
4. Developers connect the model to their own software through an **API** (a programming interface that lets apps send requests and receive answers).

```prompt
Summarize this week's three team meetings in five bullet points, list every decision that was made, and draft a short email to the department with the next steps.
```

> **Try it:** Take the meeting-summary prompt above and give it to any chatbot you already use, along with notes from a real or invented meeting. Check whether every decision in the summary actually appears in your notes. That is the kind of task Alibaba is promising DingTalk users.

## Why it matters

Tongyi Qianwen is part of a wave of Chinese AI launches. Baidu's Ernie chatbot is already in the hands of trial users, and SenseTime announced new AI products, including a chatbot called SenseChat, just this week. Several Chinese companies have now revealed or teased models of their own.

Alibaba paired the launch with price cuts on its core cloud services, of up to 40% on some computing and up to 70% on some storage, along with free trials and training for developers. The message is clear: it wants businesses to build their AI on Alibaba Cloud.

The launch was also quickly followed by new rules. The same day, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country's internet regulator, published draft rules for generative AI services. They say generated content must reflect "core socialist values" and follow laws on data security and personal information, and they are open for public comment until 10 May. Governments elsewhere are also paying close attention: Italy temporarily banned ChatGPT last month over privacy concerns.

## Can people outside China use Tongyi Qianwen?

Not yet. Alibaba says the model is open for beta testing to enterprise customers in China, and that developers in China can apply to test it through an API. Reuters reports that Alibaba Cloud began taking registrations from business clients last Friday. There is no public chatbot for individual users abroad, and Alibaba has not given a timeline for other countries.

For readers outside China, the launch is still worth following. Alibaba Cloud already serves customers worldwide, and its ModelScope platform shares hundreds of AI models with developers internationally, so wider access is possible. For now, the best way to understand what Tongyi Qianwen offers is to watch how DingTalk and Tmall Genie change as the model rolls out, and how China's new rules shape what it is allowed to say.

## Sources

- Alibaba Cloud Unveils New AI Model to Support Enterprises' Intelligence Transformation: https://www.aap.com.au/aapreleases/cision20230410ae66473
- Alibaba to roll out generative AI across apps, Beijing flags new rules: https://www.reuters.com/technology/alibaba-unveils-tongyi-qianwen-an-ai-model-similar-gpt-2023-04-11/