AI race: Meta reported to use Alibaba’s Qwen for ‘Avocado’ model in likely win for China
Reported move to reinvigorate Meta’s faltering AI effort with new ‘Avocado’ model is another likely win for Chinese AI
American tech giant Meta Platforms is reportedly using an open-source artificial intelligence model developed by Alibaba Group Holding to reinvigorate its faltering AI efforts in another likely win for Chinese AI.
According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, Facebook owner Meta was using Alibaba’s Qwen model, along with other open-source models from Google and OpenAI, as part of the training process for a new model code-named Avocado, which was expected to be released in the spring.
The report did not specify which Alibaba Qwen model was being used.
Bloomberg reported that Meta’s new model would mark a departure from its previous strategy of open-sourcing its models, meaning that users would only be able to access the model through an official application programming interface, or API. Meta has not officially announced a change of AI strategy from its open-source Llama models to a closed-source, revenue-generating model.