Alibaba Cloud had several big announcements at its Apsara Conference recently so let’s quickly go through what has been revealed.
Exceptional Achievement with Tongyi
Alibaba Cloud’s foundational model, Tongyi, has attracted over 300,000 customers on its generative AI platform, Model Studio—a notable increase from the 90,000 reported in May. Powered by Alibaba Cloud’s large Tongyi models and extensive global infrastructure, businesses in industries like automotive, gaming, travel, and IT have enhanced customer experiences and developed innovative solutions.
Another big-bang announcement is a new Large Multimodal Model (LMM) co-developed with NVIDIA and Banma, Alibaba’s intelligent cockpit provider. This solution, intended for automakers in China, aims to enhance the in-car experience and redefine the future of smart mobility.
Alibaba Cloud’s suite of large models, including Qwen2-7B and Qwen2-VL, has been integrated with NVIDIA’s DRIVE AGX Orin™ platform, reducing computational costs and latency in processing complex tasks. This integration ensures a seamless and interactive experience for drivers and passengers alike, enabling voice assistants to engage in dynamic, multi-turn conversations and offer proactive recommendations, such as suggesting the use of headlights in snowy conditions.
Additionally, Alibaba Cloud’s Mobile Agent, a multimodal AI assistant, will expand in-car voice command capabilities, allowing users to execute tasks like ordering food, and creating more interactive and enjoyable in-car experiences. Looking ahead, Alibaba Cloud plans to adapt its Qwen models for NVIDIA’s DRIVE Thor platform, combining autonomous driving, advanced driver assistance, and AI cockpit technologies.
Aside from engaging with Team Green, here are the other collaborations with various key players:
- XPENG
- AI Assistant Xiao P, utilizes Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen models, enabling the assistant to understand complex conversations and respond intuitively. For example, if a user says, “It’s cold in the car,” the assistant will automatically adjust the temperature
- Utilizes text-to-image model, Tongyi Wanxiang, for designing car stickers through its mobile app
- Qwen-powered coding assistant Tongyi Lingma to improve R&D efficiency
- miHoYo
- Provides the necessary infrastructure to tackle the latest game Zenless Zone Zero to handle high server loads and large-scale data processing
- Atlas
- Used Alibaba Cloud’s infrastructure and AI innovations to serve over 50 global travel sellers and 150 low-cost airlines with reduced operational costs by 45%
- Codium
- Working with Alibaba Cloud to enhance cloud services in Thailand and improve the local cloud ecosystem.Empowering Education with UNESCO
Lastly, Alibaba Cloud signed an MoU with UNESCO-ICHEI to launch the GenAI and Cloud Micro-Certification program, which will deliver six courses on generative AI and cloud computing to educators and students in Asia and Africa. This program is expected to benefit around 12,000 individuals by 2025, offering micro-certifications co-issued by UNESCO-ICHEI and Alibaba Cloud upon completion of each course.
