Alibaba

Published by Daniel at April 1, 2022

Alibaba, is venturing uncharted territory and taking the lead in building an AI-led future. From Cyber-Cities to cancer treatment, their projects are endless...

The Alibaba Group is a multinational technology company founded in China in 1999 by Jack Ma and 17 of his friends and students. Ali Baba group is dedicated to e-commerce, marketing, Cloud computing, and Artificial intelligence-based products and research. Initially, Ali Baba launched its website Alibaba.com, a global wholesale e-commerce marketplace for business-to-business interactions. Later that year, the Alibaba Group launched a specific wholesale marketplace for China with a distinctive feature as a business window for export activities. This initiative was financed by a 5 million dollar endowment from a group of investors, including Goldman Sachs. The rapid growth of the company further encouraged other investors, mainly the Japanese Softbank, in January 2000 to invest around 20 million dollars in the capital.(1,2,3)

Clients, providers, and possibilities.

Alibaba organized an event known as the West Lake summit, a gathering for internet businesses and brilliant minds, an initiative that made Ali Baba more familiar and renowned. Because of the company’s exponential growth, three years after its foundation, Ali Baba began to expand. Alibaba Group has since initiated many companies, including Taobao Marketplace, Tmall, Alipay, Alimama, and AliExpress. It has also invested in other companies, both related (like the Lazada Group) and unrelated (like Youku Tudou Inc.), to its initial activity, expanding its areas of interest as well as the countries to whom it provides its services. As the biggest initial public offering in history, the company’s number of full-time employees as of March 31st, 2020, is 117,600.(1,2,3,4,5)

It has also invested in other companies, both related (like the Lazada Group) and unrelated (like Youku Tudou Inc.), to its initial activity, expanding its areas of interest as well as the countries to whom it provides its services. As the biggest initial public offering in history, the company’s number of full-time employees as of March 31st, 2020, is 117,600.(1,2,3,4,5)

BATX: four companies, one future.

Along with Baidu, Tencent and Xiaomi, Alibaba is part of the most valuable technology companies (BATX) in China that are working to create cities that run on artificial intelligence. Ali Baba has invested in seven research laboratories that will focus exclusively on deep learning, networking security, natural language processing, and robotics.⁽⁶⁾

Alibaba Group’s main objective is to become a leader in providing cloud-based AI. Cloud AI allows more availability of powerful resources to anyone with a computer and internet connection, thus, enabling new businesses to grow and support multiple industries, including automotive, commerce, and healthcare. One of the latest projects was developing a research institute called DAMO Academy (“Discovery, Adventure, Momentum, and Outlook). The Academy is currently exploring a more comprehensive machine intelligence algorithm covering multiple aspects of deep learning, such as Natural Language Processing and Machine Vision. Additional research areas will be dedicated to emerging technologies, including blockchain, computer security, financial technology, and quantum computing. The Academy already counts with 7 locations worldwide, 3 of them in the USA.(7,8,9)

Cyber-city or Cyber-cities?

Ali Baba leaders believe in a “smart future” where cities are controlled by artificial intelligence. Alibaba partnered with SenseTime, an AI company that works on facial-recognition technology, and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation to build a lab to advance the frontier of AI by developing ideas and sharing knowledge. Another important project of the company in deep learning is City Brain, a tool launched in 2017 that focused on creating a cloud-based system where information about a city is available, stored, and used to watch daily aspects of the city and monitor vehicles to reduce traffic (reduced jams by 15%), illegal parking and road accidents. This system was first used only in Hangzhou and is now available in 23 cities across Asia.(10)

Self-sufficient expansions beyond the digital.

The Alibaba Group owns an important share of the most powerful tool for AI development: data. The Cloud computing service platform of the Alibaba Group allows e-commerce data mining, processing, and customization. All of which can be used to create competitive and knowledgeable models for planning in areas of business, market, and scientific development. The hardware processing capacity sometimes creates limits even for such powerful software. To address this matter, a sub-organization was launched in September 2019, the Hanguang 800, with an AI-inference chip that boasts a more efficient performance for images per second and IPS/W than other Graphics Processing Unit-based devices and processors. This chip is expected to enhance the brain analyzing capacity of the cloud’s data, increasing the capability of multidimensional awareness, real-time decision-making, situational intelligence, and machine learning.(11,12,13,14)

Although this group is the largest high-end cloud computing company in China, holding around 40% of the cloud market and infrastructure, the Alibaba Group strives for further expansion. Ali Baba continues to acquire more companies and develop more cloud-based platforms, services, and computing products. Some examples include the Platform for AI (PAI), the Apsara systems for large-scale businesses, AliOS for mobile and smart household devices, and AliGenie, the Alibaba Group personal assistant.(11,15,16,17)

Some examples include the Platform for AI (PAI), the Apsara systems for large-scale businesses, AliOS for mobile and smart household devices, and AliGenie, the Alibaba Group personal assistant.(20)

A strategic Healthcare incursion.

The Alibaba group has also invested in the healthcare field. In 2014, Alibaba group and another private-equity endeavor bought a majoritarian share of Citic 21CN, a company that managed and supervised data on pharmaceutical products, creating Ali Baba health. The China Food and Drug Administration used the company for many aspects of its drug monitoring and efforts to fight counterfeit medication distribution, giving Alibaba Health country-wide access to pharmaceutical information. This health-related company used its platform to perform a customer-to-customer and business-to-consumer model to ultimately reduce around 50% of the costs of prescription medications for patients to whom these were not easily affordable.(18,19)

Genetically precise healthcare.

Ali Baba uses its AI technology and massive cloud data to collaborate with Intel and BGI Genomics to enhance precision medicine. AI helps accelerate genetic sequencing and analysis and helps convert data into targeted therapeutic plans using pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics. This comprehensive approach may also help to direct drug-development strategies. As the project developed, the Cloud platform became more and more robust. It diversified its input data to include patient data, electronic medical records, medical imaging, smart appointment schedulers, and resources available in hospitals and households.(20,21)

By 2017, the Alibaba group launched Doctor You, a smart diagnostic solution that used image recognition and processing to detect early stages of cancer, and partnered with Wuhan Landing Medical High for further research.(20)

This comprehensive approach may also help to direct drug-development strategies. As the project developed, the Cloud platform became more and more robust. It diversified its input data to include patient data, electronic medical records, medical imaging, smart appointment schedulers, and resources available in hospitals and households.(20,21)By 2017, the Alibaba group launched Doctor You, a smart diagnostic solution that used image recognition and processing to detect early stages of cancer, and partnered with Wuhan Landing Medical High for further research.(20)

Tools for the extraordinary.

The Alibaba Cloud Medical Brain was launched to provide clinicians with comprehensive clinical advice, personalized approaches, precise treatment plans, individualized recommendations for the consultation, substantially decrease medical errors and fraud, and improve health literacy and guidance for patients. Since then, it has pursued using AI to predict, prevent, and cure diseases while experiencing minimal errors and biases.(21,22)

The image analysis and healthcare by Alibaba’s preexistent tools allowed the development of a chest CT scan assessment resource in response to the recent Coronavirus Pandemic. The tool analyses images distinguishing with an accuracy of 96% in patients with Coronavirus versus viral Pneumonia taking 20 seconds on average, while trained professionals take an average of 15 minutes.(23)