Alibaba launches AI model that can understand images and have more complex conversations
Summary
The Chinese technology giant said that its two new models, Qwen-VL and Qwen-VL-Chat, will be open source — meaning that researchers, academics and companies worldwide can use them to create their own AI apps without needing to train their own systems, therefore saving time and expense. Alibaba said that Qwen-VL can respond to open-ended queries related to different images and generate picture captions. Qwen-VL-Chat meanwhile caters to more "complex interaction," according to Alibaba, such as comparing multiple image inputs and answering several rounds of questions. Some tasks that Alibaba says Qwen-VL-Chat can perform include writing stories and creating images based on photos that a user inputs, as well as solving mathematical equations shown in a picture. The latest version of OpenAIs ChatGPT also has the ability to understand images and respond in text, much like Qwen-VL-Chat.