Alibaba launches open-source AI model for ‘cost-effective AI agents’

Alibaba Cloud launched Thursday its latest artificial intelligence model in its “Qwen series,” as large language model competition in China continues to heat up following the “DeepSeek moment.”

The new “Qwen2.5-Omni-7B” is a multimodal model, which means it can process inputs, including text, images, audio and videos, while generating real-time text and natural speech responses, according to an announcement on Alibaba Cloud’s website. 

The company says that the model can be deployed on edge devices like mobile phones, offering high efficiency without compromising performance. 

“This unique combination makes it the perfect foundation for developing agile, cost-effective AI agents that deliver tangible value, especially intelligent voice applications,” Alibaba said. 

For example, it could be used to help a visually impaired person navigate their environment through real-time audio description, the company added. 

The new model is open-sourced on the platforms Hugging Face and Github, following a growing trend in China after DeepSeek made its breakthrough R1 model open-source. 

Open-source generally refers to software in which the source code is made freely available on the web for possible modification and redistribution. Over the past years, Alibaba Cloud says it has open-sourced over 200 generative AI models.

Amid China’s AI fervor accelerated by DeepSeek, Alibaba and other generative AI competitors have been releasing new, cost-effective models and products at an unprecedented pace. 

Last week, Chinese tech giant Baidu released a new multimodal foundational model and its first reasoning-focused model. 

Alibaba, meanwhile, debuted its updated Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model in late January and released a new version of its AI assistant tool Quark earlier this month. 

The company has strongly committed to its AI strategy, announcing last month a plan to invest $53 billion in its cloud computing and AI infrastructure over the next three years, exceeding what it spent in the space over the past decade. 

Kai Wang, Asia senior equity analyst at Morningstar, told CNBC that large Chinese tech players such as Alibaba, which build data centers to meet the computing needs of AI in addition to building their own LLMs, are well positioned to benefit from China’s post-DeepSeek AI boom. 

Alibaba secured a major win for its AI business last month when it confirmed that the company was partnering with Apple to roll out AI integration for iPhones sold in China.

On Wednesday, the group also reported an expanded strategic partnership with BMW to accelerate the integration of its AI into the carmaker’s next-generation intelligent vehicles.