Alibaba Launches AI Named Qwen, Claimed to be Superior to DeepSeek

Kapanlagi.com - The artificial intelligence (AI) industry is once again buzzing after Alibaba launched its latest AI model, Qwen 2.5-Max, on the first day of the Lunar New Year. This move is quite surprising, considering many people in China are celebrating the national holiday. The announcement comes amid increasingly fierce competition in the AI world, especially after DeepSeek-V3 captured public attention in recent weeks.

"Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms almost all aspects of GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3, and Llama-3.1-405B," stated Alibaba's cloud unit, as reported by reuters.com. This statement further strengthens the rivalry between Alibaba and DeepSeek, which has previously shaken the tech industry with the launch of its advanced AI model.

DeepSeek itself became a hot topic after releasing two AI models in close succession, namely DeepSeek-V3 on January 10, 2025, and its latest model, R1, on January 20, 2025. Both models are claimed to have lower development costs compared to their competitors in the United States, which could bring significant changes to the competitive landscape of the global AI industry.

1. Background of AI Competition: from DeepSeek to Qwen 2.5-Max

DeepSeek captured the attention of the AI world in May 2024 with the launch of its V2 model, which shook the market due to its much more affordable price compared to its competitors. This bold move triggered a price war in the Chinese AI sector, forcing giants like Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent to revamp their strategies to remain relevant.

In response to the threat from DeepSeek, Alibaba accelerated its AI development by launching Qwen 2.5-Max, which was trained on over 20 trillion tokens, enabling this model to understand and process data on an extraordinary scale.

Not wanting to be left behind, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, also launched their AI model update just two days after DeepSeek-R1 was released, even claiming superiority of their model over OpenAI's o1 in the AIME benchmark tests, which measure AI's ability to understand complex instructions.

2. Advantages of Qwen 2.5-Max Technology Compared to DeepSeek-V3

Alibaba demonstrates its seriousness in launching Qwen 2.5-Max, an AI model equipped with outstanding features such as text and image analysis, video understanding, and the ability to count objects in images.

With more in-depth training, Alibaba believes that this model is superior to its competitors in the market. Qwen 2.5-Max is designed to facilitate access for companies and developers through the official Alibaba Cloud platform, making it not only a competitor to DeepSeek but also a bridge to democratize advanced AI technology for various industries.

However, these claims still need to be proven in various real-world situations, as competition in the AI world is not just about performance, but also involves operational costs, efficiency, and the speed of adoption in the field.

3. The Impact of AI Competition on the Global Technology Industry

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) is now shaking up the technology market, especially in Silicon Valley, with the release of AI models from DeepSeek and Alibaba making waves in the stock market. One of the impacts is that Nvidia has had to let its stock value drop by USD 600 billion or around Rp 9.532 trillion.

This situation shows how fierce the competition is in the AI sector, which has a significant impact on the global economy. Investors are beginning to doubt whether the massive investments by AI companies in the US are still relevant, especially when startups like DeepSeek are able to deliver high-performance AI models at much more affordable costs.

With the resources and infrastructure it possesses, Alibaba also has the potential to pressure other industry giants. Amid this intense competition, DeepSeek's founder, Liang Wenfeng, asserts that his company is not affected by the price war; their main focus is to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), an achievement that could surpass human intelligence in various economically valuable tasks.

4. The Future of AI: Will Qwen 2.5-Max Dominate?

In the increasingly fierce competition of AI, the future of this industry resembles an unsolved puzzle. Alibaba may have launched an advanced model that surpasses DeepSeek-V3, but the next challenge is how to effectively integrate this innovation across various industrial sectors.

The presence of more affordable AI also brings a breath of fresh air for small and medium-sized businesses to embrace artificial intelligence in their operations. If Qwen 2.5-Max truly lives up to Alibaba's promises, it is not impossible for this company to further solidify its position on the global stage.

However, DeepSeek still has a great opportunity to shine, thanks to their flexible and research-based approach. With a business model different from other tech giants, DeepSeek could remain a key player in the AI industry in the coming years.

5. What are the main differences between Qwen 2.5-Max and DeepSeek-V3?

6. Why did Alibaba release Qwen 2.5-Max during the Lunar New Year?

7. Will Qwen 2.5-Max be used more than DeepSeek-V3?

(kpl/rmt)