ALIBABA

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Alibaba conducts research and development in the area of AI through its research programme called the Academy for Discovery, Adventure, Momentum and Outlook (DAMO Academy). The AI Labs of the Academy focuses on voice assistants (voice interaction, natural language understanding, data mining and knowledge graph, and personal recommendation), industrial design (innovation in AI hardware and robot design), intelligent manufacturing (solutions built using edge and cloud computing), and robotics (technologies for autonomous robotic systems).

Alibaba was identified as one of the first national champions of China’s AI team by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, and was designated as a partner in China’s strategy to accelerate the country towards global technology leadership.

In 2015, Alibaba’s cloud computing subsidiary, Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun), launched DT PAI, China’s first AI platform. It allows developers to analyse massive amounts of data to produce insights that will predict user behaviour and industry trends.

The Alibaba Group also invests in start-ups in AI research and development. These include SenseTime, a facial and image recognition technology company, and HKAI lab, which then further invests in Chinese AI start-ups.

In 2018, Alibaba established its chipmaking subsidiary, Pingtouge Semiconductor Company, which focuses on customised AI chips and embedded processors. Pingtouge developed what was described as the world’s most powerful AI inference chip, a neural processing unit called Hanguang 800 in 2019.

Alibaba is one of the supporters of the Beijing AI Principles, a set of principles to guide the development and use of AI that is beneficial for humankind and nature.

INTERNET OF THINGS

As part of China’s national AI team, Alibaba focuses on smart city applications.

The research is conducted within the City Brain Lab, a part of the DAMO Academy. The research areas include multi-modal big data analysis, forecasting and intervention, large-scale parallel heterogeneous computing for cities, the analysis and understanding of complex environments, visual urban search engines, and municipal planning and public resource analysis.

The City Brain solution is deployed by Alibaba Cloud, and has so far been deployed in over 23 cities in Asia, including Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shanghai, Xiongan New Area, Quzhou, and Jiaxing.

QUANTUM COMPUTING

Alibaba conducts research and development in the area of quantum computing through its research programme the DAMO Academy, at the Quantum Lab (AQL) which was founded by Alibaba Cloud and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

AQL focuses on quantum processors and computing systems (design and implementation of quantum processors, quantum memory, and quantum computing systems), quantum algorithms (fast quantum and quantum-classical hybrid algorithms), and simulations of quantum physics (classical and quantum simulations for quantum physics).

Alibaba Cloud and CAS jointly launched an 11-qubit quantum computing service, making Alibaba the second company after IBM to provide public cloud computing services with processing power of 10+ qubits. It is available on the Quantum Computing Cloud Platform.

BLOCKCHAIN

Alibaba conducts research in the area of blockchain through its research programme the DAMO Academy, at the Blockchain Lab. The lab conducts research on the application of blockchain technology in commercial and financial services and develops proprietary industrial- and financial-grade blockchain systems. The research focuses on issues such as consensus protocols, cryptographic security and privacy protection, and the combination of the benefits of blockchain and IoT.

Alibaba is providing blockchain services to various public institutions. For example, Alibaba subsidiaries Tmall, Rookie, and Ant Financial Group will offer a blockchain-as-a-service application to the Wuchang Municipal Government to help track and authenticate Wuchang rice. Alibaba is also a member of the new national blockchain centre in Yunnan that will allow companies to run a food traceability platform and fight the sale of fake products. Ant Financial Group has also partnered with the Health Commission and Committee of Economic and Information Technology of Zhejiang Province on a blockchain-focused online information platform which helps citizens learn good prevention habits by sharing COVID-19-related materials over mobile apps.