# multimodal
Latest news and articles about multimodal
Total: 5 articles found
Alibaba’s Qwen3.5 Claims Gemini‑3‑Pro Parity at a Fraction of the Cost — A Shift from Scale to Efficiency
Alibaba has open‑sourced Qwen3.5‑Plus, a 397B‑parameter multimodal model the company says matches Gemini 3 Pro’s performance while operating with only ~17B activated parameters and much lower inference costs. The model emphasises architectural efficiency, native multimodal pretraining and agent capabilities, and forms part of a flurry of Chinese model launches that shift competition from raw scale to systems and cost efficiency.
China’s AI New-Year Sprint Exposes a New Scarcity: Token Inflation and Rising Compute Prices
China’s major tech firms used the 2026 Lunar New Year to launch a wave of multimodal AI models, precipitating a rapid rise in token-based inference demand. The surge is pushing cloud prices up, giving model vendors pricing leverage while exposing supply, governance and geopolitical risks.
ByteDance Elevates 'Doubao' to 2.0 — A Productised, Multi‑variant Large Model Push with Bold Benchmark Claims
ByteDance has launched Doubao 2.0, a family of production‑oriented large models (Pro, Lite, Mini, and a Code variant) focused on efficient inference, multimodal ability and long‑chain task execution. The company claims strong benchmark performance versus rivals but faces scrutiny over IP and international review requests, highlighting the tension between rapid commercialisation and the need for independent validation and regulatory compliance.
ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 Tests Ignite Demand for GPUs and Data‑Center Capacity
ByteDance is testing Seedance 2.0, an AI model that automates short video production end‑to‑end and could dramatically increase demand for cloud compute, storage and CDN capacity. Analysts say the model lowers production barriers but intensifies hardware needs and raises quality, copyright and moderation challenges.
Old Guard Returns: Yin Qi’s Dual Chairmanship and a RMB5bn Vote of Confidence Reshape China’s AGI Race
Yin Qi has been appointed chairman of StepFun while retaining the chairmanship of Qianli Technology, as StepFun closes a B+ round exceeding RMB5 billion. The move pairs deep foundation-model R&D with a hardware-centred commercialization strategy — notably automotive — and signals a new phase of consolidation and specialization in China’s AI landscape.