Alibaba's Qwen app is opening its ecosystem to third-party agents, with KFC, Luckin Coffee, Mixue Group, and China Eastern Airlines among the first to test the feature. Users can interact with these agents for services like ordering food or planning travel.
Code Arena, a benchmark by researchers from UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and Carnegie Mellon, evaluates AI models' ability to create complete web applications from scratch, with rankings based on blind user votes reflecting real developer preferences.
Alibaba's new Qwen 3.7 AI models, Qwen 3.7 Max-Preview and Qwen 3.7-Plus-Preview, have been released for testing. Qwen 3.7 Max-Preview ranks highly on the Arena AI leaderboard, particularly in math and logic, while showing mixed results in creative writing and reasoning. The Plus version will be open-sourced, while Max remains proprietary.
Alibaba Group Holding is integrating its flagship AI assistant Qwen into its biggest e-commerce platforms, betting that the future of online shopping lies in fluid conversations rather than rigid search terms. Using the Qwen app, shoppers are able to find, compare and purchase products from Taobao and Tmall’s 4-billion-item inventory via text or voice chat, Alibaba said in a statement on Monday. Taobao has also launched a Qwen-powered shopping assistant, which was trained on the platform’s...
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding is preparing an overhaul of how local consumers shop online, betting that the next trend will feel more like chatting with an artificial intelligence chatbot rather than typing keywords into a search bar, according to a source. Users of the company’s flagship AI assistant Qwen – one of the most popular in China – would soon be able to use natural language to “talk” with the chatbot app to find and buy items listed on Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall...
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding is preparing an overhaul of how local consumers shop online, betting that the next trend will feel more like chatting with an artificial intelligence chatbot rather than typing keywords into a search bar. Users of the company’s flagship AI assistant Qwen – one of the most popular in China – would soon be able to use natural language to “talk” with the chatbot app to find and buy items listed on Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall shopping platforms,...
Two Republican-led House committees have launched investigations into Airbnb and Anysphere (maker of Cursor) regarding their use of Chinese AI models. The House Homeland Security Committee and House China Select Committee have sent letters to CEOs requesting information on their use of AI models from Chinese companies like Alibaba's Qwen. Lawmakers cite national security concerns about data sharing with AI companies trained by China's censorship regime.
Two Republican-led House committees have launched investigations into Airbnb and Anysphere (creator of Cursor AI coding platform) regarding their use of Chinese AI models. The House Homeland Security Committee and House China Select Committee have sent letters to CEOs Brian Chesky and others requesting details on their use of AI models from Chinese companies. Lawmakers cite concerns that Chinese AI models are trained by China's censorship regime and introduce hidden vulnerabilities putting American data at risk. Airbnb confirmed using Alibaba's Qwen model, which Chesky described as fast and cheap.
Alibaba integrates its Qwen AI model into vehicles from BYD, Volkswagen's SAIC joint venture and other Chinese automakers at Beijing Auto Show 2026. The system enables voice-activated food delivery, hotel booking and ticket purchases, running on Nvidia chips with offline capability. Nine automakers including BYD, Geely, Li Auto and SAIC Volkswagen will adopt the technology.
Alibaba is rolling out its Qwen AI across multiple car brands, promising hands-free features like ordering meals and managing deliveries from the driver’s seat.
Alibaba's Qwen app has partnered with China Eastern Airlines in its first external collaboration, enabling users to complete full flight booking processes – from search and seat selection to check-in – through a natural-language chat interface. The deal marks a significant expansion of Alibaba's agentic AI capabilities beyond its own ecosystem into real-world services, supporting the company's massive AI investment strategy. Alibaba pledged 380 billion yuan ($55.6 billion) to AI and cloud over three years in early 2025.
Kyle Hessling stacked two of Jackrong's Qwopus finetunes into a single frankenmerge'—and then had to heal it. The result outperforms some of the top models.
Alibaba released Qwen 3.6-Max-Preview, its most powerful AI model to date, topping six major coding benchmarks including SWE-bench Pro and Terminal-Bench 2.0. The proprietary model is available via API with OpenAI and Anthropic compatibility, marking a strategic shift from the company's typical open-source approach. It also features preserve_thinking for multi-turn conversation context.
This document was translated from Chinese into English using Alibaba’s Qwen3.6-Plus, then checked and tweaked for accuracy by a South China Morning Post journalist. It is for reference only, and is not the official English version of the original Chinese document. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Alibaba Cloud's Qwen models have reached nearly 1 billion cumulative downloads, significantly outpacing competitors like Meta's Llama and DeepSeek, highlighting China's growing dominance in the open-source AI landscape.
