Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu unveils roadmap to artificial superintelligence

Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu announced the company’s “Roadmap to Artificial Superintelligence” at the Alibaba Cloud conference in Hangzhou, making Alibaba the first major Chinese tech giant to explicitly invoke artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial superintelligence (ASI). This marks a notable shift in China’s AI strategy, challenging Western perceptions that Chinese companies focus primarily on practical AI applications rather than pursuing advanced AI capabilities that could rival or surpass human intelligence.

What you should know: Wu’s presentation outlined Alibaba’s vision for developing AI systems that match and then exceed human cognitive abilities.

• “Achieving AGI — an intelligent system with general human-level cognition — now appears inevitable. Yet AGI is not the end of AI’s development, but its beginning,” Wu said during his 23-minute keynote.
• He described ASI as “intelligence beyond the human, capable of self-iteration and continuous evolution” that could help cure diseases, discover cleaner energy sources, and unlock interstellar travel.
• Alibaba’s stock soared following the announcement, contributing to a $250 billion comeback this year that has made it China’s hottest AI company.

In plain English: AGI refers to AI systems that can think and reason as well as humans across all types of tasks, while ASI represents AI that becomes far smarter than any human. Think of AGI as an artificial brain that matches human intelligence, and ASI as one that surpasses it entirely—potentially solving problems humans never could.

Why this matters: The announcement challenges longstanding assumptions about the U.S.-China AI competition and signals China’s serious pursuit of advanced AI capabilities.

• Many observers previously believed China focused on practical AI applications while the U.S. pursued more theoretical AGI development.
• “There’s been some commentary in Western media recently about how the U.S. is missing the point by pushing for AGI, while China is focusing solely on applications,” said Helen Toner from Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. “This is wrong.”
• The development comes as American politicians increasingly frame AI development as a national security race, with the White House’s current AI strategy titled “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan.”

Key details: Alibaba unveiled new AI models and outlined its technical roadmap during the conference.

• Wu announced a new series of Qwen models, including one that combines text, images, video and audio capabilities.
• Alibaba’s Qwen model series is currently the most popular open-source AI system in the world, competing with models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Anthropic’s Claude.
• Wu predicted that large AI models will eventually replace existing operating systems as the primary interface between users, software, and computational power.

The business angle: Experts note that Alibaba’s superintelligence vision aligns closely with its commercial interests in cloud computing.

• “This is a vision of AGI and ASI that’s directly based on Alibaba’s business model,” said Irene Zhang, a researcher on China’s AI ecosystem and editor of ChinaTalk.
• Alibaba Cloud dominates China’s cloud computing market and now has a larger global market share than Oracle, a major enterprise software company.
• Matt Sheehan from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace observed: “ASI is the ultimate frontier, as far as the discourse goes on AI. It’s notable that Alibaba set this grandiose goal, but in reality, they’re selling cloud services.”

What experts think: The announcement reflects broader questions about AI development timelines and motivations.

• Some view superintelligence discussions skeptically, questioning whether they serve primarily marketing purposes to boost company valuations.
• Others worry that an unfettered race toward AGI or ASI could lead to widespread catastrophe or even threaten humanity’s survival.
• The concept is gaining political attention, with Senators Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal announcing a draft bill to help Congress assess “the potential for controlled AI systems to reach artificial superintelligence.”

Competitive landscape: Both the U.S. and China are pursuing advanced AI capabilities, though with different public narratives.

• American companies like OpenAI have long discussed superintelligence, with OpenAI releasing guidance on safe superintelligent AI development in May 2023.
• China has previously been perceived as focusing more on robotics and embodied AI applications, with commentators arguing Beijing is “winning the race for AI robots” due to advanced manufacturing supply chains.
• Afra Wang, a China tech researcher, called Alibaba’s ASI narrative “definitely something new, especially among the biggest tech companies in China.”