Investing.com — Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd ADR (NYSE:BABA) unveiled its new multimodal AI model Qwen VLo on Friday, designed to generate and edit high-quality visuals from text and image prompts.
The new “AI creative engine” represents China’s latest entry in the rapidly advancing global AI race, following OpenAI’s addition of image generation to ChatGPT in March and Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) release of Imagen 4 in May.
Qwen VLo allows users to create complex scenes step-by-step, make on-the-fly edits, and generate images in multiple languages through plain-language instructions.
“This newly upgraded model not only ’understands’ the world but also generates high-quality recreations based on that understanding, truly bridging the gap between perception and creation,” Alibaba wrote in its launch announcement.
The model combines dynamic resolution training with progressive generation that refines outputs from left-to-right and top-to-bottom. Key features include artistic style transfers, realistic object modifications, and poster creation – functions aimed at designers, marketers, and educators.
According to Alibaba, Qwen VLo can process complex visual editing commands in a single instruction while maintaining semantic accuracy. When users input images and request modifications like color changes or style adjustments, the model preserves core structure and context fidelity.
The system supports multiple languages, particularly Chinese and English, to serve a global user base and make the technology more accessible to non-technical creators.
Alibaba’s international push comes as Beijing seeks to accelerate domestic AI development, especially as Chinese firms face increasing restrictions on access to U.S.-built chips and foundational models.
The company acknowledged that Qwen VLo remains in preview with known limitations including inconsistencies and occasional instruction compliance failures. “We will continue to iterate and improve the stability and robustness of the model,” Alibaba stated.
Users can currently access this preview version through Qwen Chat.
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