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Alibaba joins the rush to build a ChatGPT rival
Chinese tech giant Alibaba is joining the crowded ranks of those building rivals to ChatGPT.
Hacker claims they stole police data on a billion Chinese citizens
A sample of the data included crime reports going back to 1995.
Tokyo Olympics staff will be given ear-worn devices to reduce the risk of heatstroke
Alibaba has designed a cloud-based solution to help protect the Tokyo Olympics staff from heatstroke.
Alibaba hit with $2.8 billion fine in China antitrust case
Chinese authorities have slapped Alibaba with a $2.8 billion fine after finishing an anti—trust investigation that looked into alleged monopolistic practices.
China cracks down on big tech companies with new anti-monopoly measures
China is clamping down on big tech conglomerates by tightening its anti-monopoly guidelines for internet and digital payment services. The new rules effectively block companies from forcing sellers to choose between the leading online players, a common practice in the country, reports Reuters. The guidelines are aimed at Chinese heavyweights including e-commerce providers such as Alibaba Group’s Taobao and JD.com and mobile payment services like Ant Group’s Alipay or Tencent’s WeChat Pay.
China pushes Alibaba founder Jack Ma to downsize his finance business
China’s crackdown on Jack Ma’s empire is far from over: The country’s regulators have ordered the Ma-founded Alibaba affiliate Ant Group to scale down its business. Ant Group started out as Alipay, which became China’s largest digital payment platform, though it eventually expanded to offer investment and savings accounts, as well as lending, insurance and wealth management services. Pan Gongsheng, the deputy governor of China’s central bank, called those services “illegal” and said the company must “strictly rectify” those activities.
Alibaba is facing an anti-monopoly probe by Chinese regulators
China’s market regulator has opened an investigation into Alibaba’s “suspected monopolistic conduct.” The State Administration for Market Regulation has posted a short statement on its website announcing the anti—monopoly probe. The regulator seems to have taken issue with Alibaba’s “choosing one from two” policy, in particular.
India bans 'PUBG Mobile' and more than 100 other apps
Since June, India has banned 177 apps with ties to China.
Ubisoft sues Apple and Google for selling a 'Rainbow Six: Siege' clone
Ubisoft has sued Apple and Google for selling 'Area F2,' a title that's allegedly a knockoff of 'Rainbow Six: Siege.'
Alibaba unveils its own AI chip for cloud computing
Apparently, Huawei isn't the only Chinese mega-corporation that was developing its own AI chip. Alibaba has unveiled an in-house-designed AI chip called the Hanguang 800 a month after Huawei launched the Ascend 910. The company, mostly known for its e-commerce business, said the chip could significantly cut down on the time needed to finish machine learning tasks. For example: Alibaba-owned shopping website Taobao takes an hour to categorize the one billion product images sellers upload on the platform. With the the new chip, that task would apparently be done in five minutes.
Google, Intel and Microsoft form data protection consortium
It's common to secure data when its sitting put or flying to its destination, but not so much when you're actually using it -- there's still a risk someone could peek at your content while you work. Industry heavyweights might help keep your info secure at every step, though. Google, Intel, Microsoft and seven other companies have formed the Confidential Computing Consortium to help in "defining and accelerating" open source tech that delivers truly private data access. Ideally, data will always be encrypted or otherwise limited to whoever is meant to be looking.
China’s Alipay will add beauty filters when you pay with your face
We all know how startling it can be to accidentally open a front-facing camera and find your own unassuming face looking back at you. Now, imagine if you saw that image every time you made a purchase. In China, Alibaba's e-wallet affiliate Alipay will soon add beauty filters when you pay with its facial recognition system.
Alibaba opens e-commerce platform to sellers outside of China
China's e-commerce giant Alibaba is now allowing businesses from a select few other countries to sell goods on its platform. AliExpress, which enabled small and medium-sized companies in China to sell goods to over 150 countries, has opened up to businesses in Italy, Russia, Spain and Turkey reports The Financial Times. The company hopes to expand AliExpress to retailers in other countries.
Amazon will close its Chinese platform for third-party sellers in July
Amazon is pulling the plug on its e-commerce marketplace for third-party sellers in China. The decision follows a long struggle by American e-commerce companies in the country, who have fallen behind China's faster shopping rivals.
Alibaba's shopping event sales hit $1 billion in 85 seconds
Chinese internet giant Alibaba is fond of crowing about its online shopping records, and that's truer than ever this year. The company's annual Global Shopping Festival, aka Singles Day, broke last year's record by selling $30.8 billion in goods across 230 countries over the space of 24 hours, a hefty 27 percent increase over the $25.3 billion from 2017. However, the initial burst also stood out. It took just 85 seconds for Alibaba to sell its first $1 billion, and an hour to top $10 billion. That's well past US holiday sales -- for context, Black Friday 2017 'only' generated $5 billion in online sales.
Alibaba will build its own AI chip to support self-driving cars
Chinese internet giant Alibaba is doubling down on its chip manufacturing with a dedicated subsidiary, co-founder and chairman Jack Ma said at an event in Hangzhou this week. The company wants to launch its first self-developed AI inference chip in the second half of 2019, supporting its move into self-driving vehicles and smart products. The move follows the company's announcement back in April that it had begun testing its own autonomous vehicle technology.
China's richest man Jack Ma will retire on Monday (updated)
In an interview with the New York Times Jack Ma revealed his plan to step down as executive chairman of Alibaba -- often referred to as China's Amazon -- on Monday. He co-founded the Chinese internet retailer in 1999 and built it into an empire currently worth $420 billion and making the former English teacher China's richest man worth about $40 billion. According to the paper current CEO Daniel Zhang is a "candidate" to replace Ma, who plans to pursue philanthropy in education. Monday is his 54th birthday, and the Chinese holiday Teacher's Day, making the announcement particularly timely.
AI-enabled Guess store helps you create an ensemble
You can try Amazon's Echo Look if you want AI to offer fashion advice at home. But what if you're at the store, and would rather not hem and haw while you decide if that top goes with those jeans? Guess and Alibaba think they can help. They've worked together on an AI system, FashionAI, that uses computer vision to help you create an entire outfit while you're shopping. A smart mirror can recognize the color, style and traits of what you're holding (such as the neckline) and suggest other items that would be a good complement, including clothes you've already bought online. Can't style your way out of a wet paper bag? You might only have to pick one piece that strikes your fancy to create a full ensemble.
Facebook shared user data with 52 tech companies
It's no secret that Facebook shared user data with device and software makers as part of its partnerships. Now, however, the scope of those deals has become clearer. Facebook has responded to a House Energy & Commerce Committee request for data with a 747-page response detailing the social network's data sharing deals with other companies. All told, Facebook has shared user info with 52 firms, including Chinese firms like Alibaba, Huawei, Lenovo and Oppo -- some of these were already known. It has ended already partnerships with 38 of them (some due to companies ending relevant business, like HP/Palm and Inq), with seven more due to expire in July 2018 and one more in October.
Alibaba’s new autonomous robot delivers packages at a modest pace
Unlike its car vending machine concept, Alibaba's ideas for robots have been more mundane and mainly confined to warehouses (the same kind that Amazon uses). But today, the Chinese ecommerce titan introduced a package-delivering 'bot that uses LiDAR to navigate around. The package locker it carries uses facial recognition to ensure it's got the right recipient before popping open its doors.
