America can’t win by targeting Alibaba

IT WAS SUPPOSED to be a good week for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The tech giant released its revamped Qwen app to users in China, with plans to roll out the ChatGPT-like tool internationally later on.

- CATHERINE THORBECKE

The company’s family of artificial intelligence (AI) models have proven extremely popular with global developers, but the release of the all-in-one app signalled its boldest push yet into the consumer market. The new Qwen platform goes beyond conversational AI, the company said, and can generate a full research report or produce a PowerPoint presentation in seconds. For now, Alibaba is offering it up for free—a move that could potentially pose a threat to Silicon Valley leader Open AI, which reportedly earns 70% of its annual revenue from consumers using ChatGPT.

But that news was largely overshadowed by a Financial Times report alleging Alibaba provides tech support for Chinese military operations according to a White House memo shared with the news outlet. The company has denied the claims as completely false and questioned the motivation behind the anonymous leak.