AI coder forms part of Alibaba Cloud’s artificial intelligence programming tool called Tongyi Lingma. — SCMP
Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud computing unit launched a novel artificial intelligence (AI) coder that is touted as capable of building an application “in minutes”, sparking plenty of discourse among software programmers in mainland China.
The AI coder, part of Alibaba Cloud’s AI programming tool called Tongyi Lingma, can perform a set of automated tasks – from comprehending prompts, writing code and debugging software – to complete development of an app “as fast as a few minutes”, according to a company statement on Wednesday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The system is powered by Alibaba Cloud’s Tongyi Qianwen family of large language models (LLMs) – the technology behind generative AI (GenAI) services like ChatGPT – and improves code development efficiency “by over 10 times”, the company said.
Its launch has fanned speculation among Chinese programmers that this tool can surpass those from US firms like ChatGPT creator OpenAI, as Alibaba Cloud touted its AI coder as the world’s first such system that supports both Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code (VS Code) and JetBrains’ IDEs – two popular integrated software-development platforms used in the industry.
Shanghai-based software engineer Frank Lin said he had previously used the coding tool on ChatGPT’s website, which can handle routine coding tasks but has limited “creative abilities”.
“The Alibaba Cloud one looks stronger than the ChatGPT one by its introduction,” Lin said, adding that he would be willing to pay for the new service if it proves to be competitive.
Alibaba Cloud currently does not charge individual professionals for using Tongyi Lingma, which is marked as “temporarily free” on its website. Enterprise users, however, are charged a monthly fee of least 79 yuan (RM48 or US$11).
Shenzhen-based programmer Wang Yiran said the new AI tool has raised hopes that a cheaper, but more powerful and efficient system, is readily accessible for use on the mainland.
“I’ve been using Cursor to assist my job, which is a bit expensive,” Wang said, referring to the AI code editor of VS Code. Microsoft charges US$20 (RM90) per month for professional users and US$40 (RM180) per user per month for enterprise clients.
Alibaba Cloud’s AI coder reflects the growing adoption of its GenAI tools, following the success of its Tongyi Qianwen LLM series, also known as Qwen, in a range of industries and across various markets.
As of May last year, Qwen had more than 90,000 corporate clients in industries ranging from consumer electronics to cars and online games, according to Alibaba Cloud chief technology officer Zhou Jingren.
Launched in 2023, AI programming tool Tongyi Lingma has been adopted by a number of major domestic companies including China United Property Insurance, Changan Automobile and state-owned carmaker FAW Group, according to Alibaba Cloud.
Tongyi Lingma has so far recorded more than nine million downloads for its plug-ins – software components that add a specific feature to an existing computer program. It has also generated 1.5 billion lines of code, making it one of the most used AI coding solutions for programmers in China. – South China Morning Post
