Chinese tech giant Alibaba has updated its artificial intelligence (AI) model Tongyi Qianwen and released industry-specific AI models amid an intensifying AI race among tech companies.

• Tongyi Qianwen 2.0 has "hundreds of billions of" parameters, making it one of the world's most powerful AI models.
• Alibaba has launched eight AI models for the entertainment, finance, healthcare, and legal industries.
• Chairman Joe Tsai said about half of large-language AI models in China now run on Alibaba Cloud.

The upgrade to Tongyi Qianwen comes just six months after the model's initial release, reflecting the pace at which tech companies are racing to control China's nascent and quickly expanding AI market. Alibaba's industry-specific models went online on Tuesday, offering dedicated tools for creating images, writing computer code, analyzing financial data, and searching for legal documents.

Alibaba's cloud computing arm said that Tongyi Qianwen 2.0 is one of the world's most powerful AI models, with "hundreds of billions of" parameters. The company also said it has launched eight AI models for the entertainment, finance, healthcare, and legal industries.

At the conference, Chairman Joe Tsai said that about half of large-language AI models in China now run on Alibaba Cloud. He also said that Alibaba's AI model-sharing platform ModelScope now features 2,300 models and 2.7 million contributing developers.

The intensifying AI race among tech companies is driven by the belief that AI will be a key driver of economic growth in the future. Alibaba's move to update Tongyi Qianwen and release a suite of industry-specific AI models is a sign that the company is serious about competing in the AI market.