Alibaba Unveils Qwen 2.5 AI Model in Response to DeepSeek’s Rapid Rise

TDT | Manama

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Chinese tech giant Alibaba has unveiled an upgraded version of its artificial intelligence model, Qwen 2.5, claiming it surpasses the widely praised DeepSeek-V3. The announcement comes at a time when domestic competition in the AI sector is intensifying, fueled by DeepSeek’s meteoric rise.

The release of Qwen 2.5-Max on Wednesday, the first day of the Lunar New Year—a period when most Chinese citizens are off work and spending time with family—highlights the urgency Alibaba feels amid the growing influence of its rival. DeepSeek, a relatively new player in the AI field, has made significant waves in the past month, posing a challenge not only to overseas tech giants but also to established domestic firms.

“Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms ... almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3, and Llama-3.1-405B,” Alibaba’s cloud unit stated in an official WeChat announcement, referencing top AI models from OpenAI and Meta.

DeepSeek’s rapid ascent began with the launch of its AI assistant powered by DeepSeek-V3 on January 10, followed by the release of its R1 model on January 20. The Chinese startup's innovative approach, which reportedly features lower development and operational costs, has sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley, causing tech stock declines and raising investor concerns about the massive spending strategies of U.S. AI firms.

DeepSeek’s success has triggered an AI race among Chinese competitors, prompting accelerated upgrades in their own AI models. Shortly after DeepSeek-R1’s launch, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, introduced an enhanced version of its flagship AI model. ByteDance claimed that its AI outperformed OpenAI’s o1 in AIME, a benchmark test designed to evaluate AI comprehension and response accuracy to complex instructions.

As Chinese AI firms push forward with rapid advancements, the battle for AI supremacy intensifies, positioning domestic companies as formidable challengers in the global AI landscape.