Latest news with #BenJiang
South China Morning Post
09-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Alibaba executive sees ‘explosive growth' in AI applications in China in 2025
Advertisement AI models' growing capabilities 'have created new opportunities for AI applications', said Liu Weiguang, senior vice-president of Alibaba's cloud computing unit, at an event hosted by the company in Beijing, which began on Wednesday. The four-day Alibaba Cloud AI Dynamics fair has drawn dozens of exhibitors showcasing their latest AI-empowered products. One of the most popular booths belonged to Robam Appliances, a cooking equipment maker whose 'AI-powered' kitchen devices captivated visitors. A range hood automatically adjusted the extractor fan's speed, while a steam oven modified cooking times by 'looking' at the ingredients. China's advancements in open-source models, led by start-up DeepSeek , have sparked a wave of AI adoption. Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, is among several Chinese tech giants providing foundational models and solutions to facilitate AI applications across various sectors. An AI-powered chair from Chinese ergonomics chair maker Sihoo. Photo: Ben Jiang While China still trails the US in model capabilities, its strength lies in AI applications. Alibaba Cloud's event showed how AI can be used in everything from eyeglasses to cars, video gaming, education, office solutions and robotics, giving hundreds of visitors a glimpse of the future.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Former ByteDance executive takes helm at Baidu-backed Shengshu amid generative AI boom
A former ByteDance executive has joined Shengshu AI as CEO, marking a significant hire by one of China's leading artificial intelligence (AI) video start-ups amid fierce competition for talent in the rapidly evolving industry. Luo Yihang - the former head of AI solutions at ByteDance's cloud unit, Volcano Engine - will oversee research and development, product management, commercialisation and team management at Shengshu, according to a company representative. Tang Jiayu, Shengshu's co-founder and former chief executive, would assume the role of president, responsible for core functional areas including strategic development, branding, human resources, administration, finance, legal affairs and intellectual property, the representative said on Wednesday. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Founded in early 2023 amid the surge of interest in generative AI following OpenAI's release of ChatGPT, Shengshu gained prominence in China last year with the launch of Vidu, a video-generation model seen as a competitor to OpenAI's Sora. Shengshu AI co-founder and president Tang Jiayu introduces the company's new video tool. Photo: Ben Jiang alt=Shengshu AI co-founder and president Tang Jiayu introduces the company's new video tool. Photo: Ben Jiang> Beijing-based Shengshu has strong ties to Tsinghua University, from which members of its core team graduated. They include president Tang, chief scientist and computer science professor Zhu Jun, and chief technology officer Bao Fan. The company has received investments from search giant Baidu and Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the Post. Luo, also a Tsinghua alumnus who earned his doctorate from the university's automation department in 2014, began his career as marketing director at Yunshan Networks, a strategic partner of Microsoft in China. His last public appearance representing ByteDance was in June, during an online webinar discussing how AI-generated content could drive marketing growth. He viewed AI as a collaborative partner rather than a replacement for human employees, adding that the technology "has the potential to gradually transform into digital employees". ByteDance's Volcano Engine provides corporate and developer clients with access to proprietary large language models, the type of technology underpinning generative AI services like ChatGPT. Its products include the Doubao foundation model and video generator Seaweed. Luo has also served as vice-president of a Beijing pilot zone for AI innovation and application, and as a lecturer on AI at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, according to a speaker introduction during the event. He is not the only ByteDance executive who has transitioned to generative AI start-ups. Zhang Tao, who oversaw the strategic planning and launch of ByteDance's overseas products, now serves as product partner at Butterfly Effect, the Tencent Holdings-backed company that recently garnered attention with a preview of its general-purpose AI agent, Manus. Ren Lifeng, a founding member of TikTok's Chinese sibling Douyin, last year established Shumei Wanwu, an e-commerce community powered by generative AI. The start-up has secured funding from HongShan Capital Group, IDG Capital and Meituan. This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
South China Morning Post
20-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Alibaba to ramp up AI, cloud investments as quarterly profit surges
Ann Cao in Shanghai and Ben Jiang in Beijing Published: 7:18pm, 20 Feb 2025 Updated: 10:05pm, 20 Feb 2025 Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding saw profit surge 239 per cent cent in the December quarter to beat analysts' estimates, as the company's cloud computing services unit posted strong growth. 'This quarter's results demonstrated substantial progress in our 'user first, AI-driven' strategies and the re-accelerated growth of our core businesses,' said Eddie Wu Yongming , chief executive of Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post. In a conference call with analysts, Wu said Alibaba plans to 'aggressively invest' in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing infrastructure over the next three years, which is expected to exceed what the group has spent over the past decade in building its capabilities related to these technologies. 'We are excited by the business opportunities being unlocked by this new technology cycle,' he said. Alibaba's shares in New York were up 11 per cent in pre-market trading after the company reported its latest financial results. The Hangzhou -based tech conglomerate on Thursday reported that profit reached 48.9 billion yuan (US$6.7 billion) during the quarter, from 14.4 billion yuan a year ago, primarily on the back of 'the increase in income from operations, mark-to-market changes from our equity investments, and the increase in share of results of equity method investees', Alibaba said.
South China Morning Post
20-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Alibaba quarterly revenue rises, profit surges on back of ‘AI-driven strategies'
Ann Cao in Shanghai and Ben Jiang in Beijing Published: 7:18pm, 20 Feb 2025 Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding saw revenue rise 8 per cent in the December quarter to beat analysts' estimates, as the company's cloud computing services unit posted strong growth. The Hangzhou -based tech conglomerate on Thursday reported total revenue of 280.2 billion yuan (US$38.4 billion) in the three months ended December 31, compared with the consensus estimate of 277.4 billion yuan from a Bloomberg survey of analysts. The company has maintained single-digit revenue growth for the sixth consecutive quarter. Profit surged 239 per cent to 48.9 billion yuan during the quarter, from 14.4 billion yuan a year ago, primarily on the back of 'the increase in income from operations, market-to-market changes from our equity investments, and the increase in share of results of equity method investees', Alibaba said. That was better than the 37.7 billion yuan quarterly profit expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. 'This quarter's results demonstrated substantial progress in our 'user first, AI-driven' strategies and the re-accelerated growth of our core businesses,' said Eddie Wu Yongming , chief executive of Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post.
South China Morning Post
08-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
From ‘piglet' to powerhouse: how DeepSeek changed China's AI narrative
Ben Jiang , Ann Cao , Wency Chen and Zhou Xin Published: 11:00am, 8 Feb 2025 In 2022, under the pseudonym 'an ordinary little pig', the founder of artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek quietly donated 138 million yuan (US$19 million) to Chinese charities. The name, a nod to Wang Xiaobo's dark-humour short story 'A Maverick Pig', reportedly masked the true identity of Liang Wenfeng, a man whose quantum trading operation was facing mounting regulatory pressure. On January 28 that year, Liang's hedge fund High-Flyer Quant issued a statement to the public denying that its quantum trading was responsible for a plunge in Chinese stocks. 'In recent days, there was market gossip that a coordinated sell-off by quant trading institutions had led to a market downfall,' High-flyer said. 'We've discussed with managers of the major players in the industry and they all denied such a thing. Please don't believe the gossip, thanks.' Three years later, DeepSeek, a spin-off from High-Flyer, would make headlines for actually being responsible for roiling the US stock market. On January 27, a massive sell-off wiped out nearly US$1 trillion in tech stocks, including US$600 billion from Nvidia alone. The catalyst was the release of DeepSeek's R1 reasoning model, which came just weeks after it unveiled the more traditional V3 large language model (LLM). These models rivalled the performance of OpenAI's offerings at a fraction of the cost, casting doubt on the assumptions underpinning the high valuations of US chip and AI companies.
