Alibaba has introduced its latest AI model, Qwen 2.5-Max, an open-source system. The company claims it outperforms major competitors, including OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Meta’s Llama-3.1-405B.

The announcement comes amid intensifying AI competition. Recently, Chinese startup DeepSeek shook global markets by asserting that its AI is more cost-effective and performs better than leading U.S. models.

Alibaba’s stock rose 1.2% following the announcement. Over the past six months, its share price has climbed 25%. Investors are closely watching how this AI race unfolds. Chinese tech firms are increasingly challenging Western dominance.

The Qwen 2.5-VL series, a part of the new Qwen family, introduces multimodal capabilities. The AI can perform text and image analysis, document parsing, and video comprehension.

Alibaba states that Qwen 2.5-VL surpasses OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash in multiple benchmarks.

DeepSeek’s recent claims triggered a tech-led selloff in U.S. and European markets. Former U.S. President Donald Trump called it “a wake-up call” for American tech firms. He emphasized the need for the U.S. to remain competitive in AI. He also expressed confidence in the country's ability to lead the sector.

The escalating AI rivalry has reignited concerns about a potential U.S.-China trade war. Trump has yet to impose his proposed 60% tariff on Chinese imports. His administration is currently assessing the situation. Findings are expected by April 1.

Qwen 2.5-VL introduces several notable features. It can parse files, count objects, and interact with software.

The AI analyzes charts, extracts data from scanned documents, and even operates devices. A demonstration by Hugging Face technical lead Philipp Schmid showcased the model booking a flight via the Booking.com app on Android.

Despite its advancements, the Qwen 2.5-VL model has limitations. It performed poorly on OSWorld, a benchmark that simulates real computer environments. Like many Chinese AI models, Qwen 2.5-VL is subject to government content restrictions. It avoids politically sensitive topics such as Taiwan’s autonomy.

Alibaba offers two smaller Qwen 2.5-VL models, the 3B and 7B versions, under a permissive open-source license. However, the flagship Qwen 2.5-VL-72B is protected under Alibaba’s custom license.

Companies with over 100 million monthly active users must seek Alibaba’s approval before commercial deployment.

China’s AI industry is expanding rapidly. Alibaba’s latest innovation signals a growing challenge to Western tech dominance. As AI development accelerates, businesses and investors will be watching closely. The outcome could reshape the global tech landscape.

PHOTO: GETTYIMAGES

This article was created with AI assistance.