ChatGPT effect: Alibaba group to also debut a chatbot soon

Chinese multinational technology company, Alibaba, has said that it is also looking to launch its ChatGPT-styled tool, making it another technology company that plans to launch an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot. Following ChatGPT's roaring success, search engine companies such as Google and Baidu have announced their plans to launch similar services.

ChatGPT, Open AI's conversational chatbot, is currently one of the most popular tools on the internet. Designed to assist in tasks ranging from summarizing information to generating some of its own, the chatbot has trumped the likes of Tiktok and Instagram regarding daily active users. Microsoft hopes to cash into this rush by powering its Bing search engine with an advanced version of the GPT, the learning language model that runs the chatbot.

Alilbaba to launch ChatGPT rival too

Such has been the craze of ChatGPT that no tech company wants to be left out of this race. After years of hyped-up AI talk, something tangible has emerged and has the potential to knock Google off its perch or at least drastically change how it conducts its business.

Tech companies have been waiting for this chink in Google's armor and will try to capitalize on this opportunity by launching their chatbots. In a statement to CNN, an Alibaba spokesperson said that the company has been focusing on innovations like language models and generative AI through its DAMO division which was set up in 2017. DAMO is the company's acronym for its research arm, which works in data computing, machine intelligence, and robotics.

The announcement also pushed up the company's stock prices by 1.4 percent earlier today. However, it didn't announce a name or a launch for the product in the statement.

Google, which appears to have been caught off guard by the introduction of ChatGPT, is looking to make up the lost ground and recently launched Bard AI, which is expected to be rolled out to the public in the coming few weeks.

However, in a recent demonstration, the chatbot produced some embarrassing responses, which led to a drop of eight percent in the parent company, Alphabet's stock value.

With no launch date to target, Alibaba can take its time to ensure that it rolls out its product without any issues. Local competitor, Baidu, has already announced that its chatbot, Wenxin Yiyan” in Chinese or “ERNIE Bot” in English, will be launched in March.

This report contains information available from CNN.