Alibaba claims its new AI translation tool beats ChatGPT
What's the story
Alibaba International, the global arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant, has launched an upgraded variant of its AI-powered translation tool. The company claims that this new tool, called Marco MT, is better than similar offerings from Google as well as OpenAI's popular AI chatbot ChatGPT. The claim comes from an assessment by Flores, a translation benchmark framework.
User base
Marco MT: A tool for global merchants
The AI translation tool is an upgrade to a product launched some 12 months ago, which has already gained over 500,000 merchant users. The main purpose of this tool is to help sellers create product pages in the language of their target market. The latest version uses only large language models, allowing it to take contextual factors like culture or industry-specific terms into account.
Language support
Alibaba's translation tool supports 15 languages
Alibaba's translation tool is based on its own model, dubbed Qwen, and supports 15 languages at the moment. They include Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish Portuguese Russian Spanish Turkish and Ukrainian. Kaifu Zhang from Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group expects huge demand for the tool from Europe and the Americas as well as emerging markets.
Business impact
AI translation tool's impact on Alibaba's international business
Since its first launch last fall, Alibaba's AI translation tool has been used for more than 100 million product listings. Zhang did not reveal the cost of the updated version, but said it is part of some service packages for merchants looking for simple exposure to overseas users. He believes contextual translation will greatly increase the chances of consumers making purchases.