Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. recently unveiled their latest generative AI model, Tongyi Wanxiang, meaning “tens of thousands of images.” The company made this announcement at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2023.
In a statement released on Alibaba Cloud’s blog site, Jingren Zhou, CTO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said, “Tongyi Wanxiang represents another significant milestone in our pursuit of advanced generative AI models as we continue to explore paradigm-shifting technologies that empower businesses and communities to unleash greater creativity and productivity.”
Alibaba Cloud, a subsidiary of the Alibaba Group that focuses on intelligence technology and cloud computing services, develops the model. This AI tool is a global tech company’s latest entry in the generative AI race. It is an image generator that takes prompts from texts (both English and Chinese), similar to Microsoft’s Bing Image Creator and Starry AI. Additionally, the AI can convert pre-existing images into new ones using different styles and themes.
Highlighting the potential of such a tool for both small and large businesses, Jingren Zhou stated that “With the release of Tongyi Wanxiang, high-quality generative AI imagery will become more accessible, facilitating the development of innovative AI art and creative expressions for businesses across a wide range of sectors, including e-commerce, gaming, design, and advertising.”
Tongyi Wanxiang is currently available only for beta testing to enterprise customers in China.