China's Alibaba unveils AI image generator to take on Midjourney and DALL-E

SenseTime

07/07/2023 08:37

By Josh Ye
       HONG KONG, July 7 (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd
 9988.HK  announced on Friday an artificial intelligence (AI)
image generator, initially available to enterprise customers in
beta form, as it ramps up its offerings in the fast-growing AI
sector.
    The image generator, Tongyi Wanxiang, will compete with
OpenAI's DALL-E and Midjourney Inc's Midjourney, U.S.-based
rivals that have gained a large following worldwide. 
    Alibaba Cloud, recently formed from a massive overhaul that
split the Chinese tech major into six units, has also released a
ChatGPT-like text generator, Tongyi Qianwen, which was launched
in April.
    Several large Chinese tech companies are moving aggressively
to roll out AI products and services following the success of
OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot. McKinsey estimates that generative AI
could eventually add $7.3 trillion in value to the world economy
each year.
    Baidu Inc  9888.HK  and SenseTime Group Inc <0020.HK > also
recently unveiled AI image generators, although generative AI
services have yet to receive regulatory approval for wide
distribution in China.
    Alibaba Cloud has also rolled out ModelScopeGPT, an AI tool
for developers.
    The Tongyi Wanxiang image generator, which roughly
translates as "truth from tens of thousands of pictures", was
revealed at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in
Shanghai on Friday.

 (Reporting by Josh Ye; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
 ((Josh.Ye@thomsonreuters.com;))