Chinese tech giant Alibaba (BABA) has rolled out a new artificial intelligence model called R1 Omni, designed to recognize emotions and provide detailed descriptions of people’s clothing and surroundings in videos.
This model, developed by Alibaba’s Tongyi Lab, enhances computer vision by adding a higher level of insight into visual content. R1 Omnis, is an improved version of HumanOmnis,an earlier model made by the same lead researcher, Jiaxing Zhao.
Competing in the AI Race
Alibaba is intensifying its push into AI following the rise of DeepSeek, a competitor that made a strong debut in January.The company has been rolling out new AI tools and applications, benchmarking its Qwen model against DeepSeek and even recently signing a partnership to integrate AI into Apple devices.
Now with the new R1-Omni, Alibaba is setting its sights on OpanAI as well. Unlike OpenAI, Alibaba puts R1 Omni open source and freely available through Hugging Face for people to download.
Meanwhile, OpenAI just recently launched GPT 4.5, a new upgraded version of its AI model, which claims to be better at understanding subtle cues in written prompts. However, access is expensive at a price of $200 per month, making it less accessible compared to Alibaba’s free offering.
Alibaba’s AI Ambitions
Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu has made clear that Artificial General Intelligence is now the top priority for the company.
In a February meeting with analysts, Wu stated:
“Artificial general intelligence is now Alibaba’s primary objective.”
With this aggressive move, Alibaba is stepping up as a major player in the AI space, and competing directly with leading firms like OpenAI and DeepMind. By making R1 Omni open source.
Alibaba is not only showing off its development skills, it also draws in a bigger community, potentially accelerating global adoption.The battle for AI dominance is heating up, and Alibaba is making sure it stays ahead in the race.
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