Alibaba Unveils AI Image Generator to Challenge Midjourney and DALL-E

Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd on Friday announced its artificial intelligence image generator at the prestigious World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2023, as it ramps up its offerings in the fast growing AI sector. 

This cutting-edge AI image generation model, called Tongyi Wanxiang (which translates to 'tens of thousands of images'), is now ready for beta testing and available to enterprise customers in China.

The newly introduced image generator by Alibaba, is set to enter the competitive landscape alongside renowned rivals such as OpenAI's DALL-E and Midjourney Inc's MidJourney. These U.S.-based competitors have garnered significant global popularity and recognition.

Jingren Zhou, CTO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, expressed his excitement about Tongyi Wanxiang, stating that it marks a significant milestone in their journey to develop advanced generative AI models. 

“With the release of Tongyi Wanxiang, high-quality generative AI imagery will become more accessible, facilitating the development of innovative AI art and creative expressions for businesses across a wide range of sectors, including e-commerce, gaming, design and advertising,” he added. 

Alibaba Cloud also unveiled ModelScopeGPT, a powerful framework designed to harness the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) available on the platform. Alibaba Cloud launched its LLM named Tongyi Qianwen in April, and it plans to integrate the LLM across Alibaba’s various businesses in order to improve the user experience in the near future. 

In the wake of OpenAI's successful ChatGPT chatbot, numerous prominent Chinese tech companies are taking decisive steps to launch their own AI products and services. Earlier In April, Alibaba  launched its own AI chatbot, Tongyi Qianwen, to rival ChatGPT.