China cleared Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group, to roll out products powered by its large-language artificial intelligence model Bailing to the public, reports Caixin. Bailing will apply to Ant’s various services and help with innovation, Xu Peng, vice president of Ant Group, said Monday in a statement.
Chinese tech businesses including Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu have joined startups Baichuan and Zhipu to release ChatGPT-like products, joining a global race to capitalize on the potential of generative AI. Ant, the owner of Alipay, can leverage the popularity of the mobile payment service to gain more data and insight on user habits.
Hangzhou-based Alibaba defined AI as one of its two core strategies as it goes through a six-way spinoff. The government approval dovetails with efforts at Alibaba. On Monday, the company’s commerce unit also pushed out a suite of tools including chatbots for small businesses trying to expand overseas.
