On the first day of the Chinese New Year, tech giant Alibaba unveiled its latest artificial intelligence model, the Qwen 2.5-Max. The company claims this new model outperforms leading AI models like DeepSeek-V3, GPT-4o, and Llama-3.1-405B.
Alibaba’s cloud unit announced, “Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms … almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3, and Llama-3.1-405B,” referencing OpenAI and Meta’s most advanced open-source AI models. The release underscores Alibaba’s commitment to advancing AI technology and staying ahead in the competitive AI landscape.
In addition to Qwen 2.5-Max, Alibaba also open-sourced its visual model, Qwen 2.5-VL, further contributing to the global AI community. The company’s technological prowess was also on display during the Spring Festival Gala, an annual variety show viewed by billions. Alibaba provided cloud computing support for the live broadcast, which blends music, dance, opera, martial arts, and comedy.
The AI race in the tech world has intensified, especially after the release of DeepSeek’s AI assistant powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model. DeepSeek’s advancements have made waves in Silicon Valley, causing tech shares to plunge and prompting investors to question the hefty spending plans of leading AI firms in the United States.
Following DeepSeek’s success, other tech companies have been quick to respond. TikTok owner ByteDance recently updated its flagship AI model, claiming it outperformed Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s o1 in AIME, a benchmark test measuring AI models’ understanding and response to complex instructions. This move echoed DeepSeek’s claim that its R1 model rivaled OpenAI’s o1 on several performance benchmarks.
The rapid developments in AI technology signal a new era of innovation, with companies like Alibaba leading the charge. For young tech enthusiasts around the world, especially in the Global South, these advancements open up exciting possibilities for the future of artificial intelligence.
