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In a bid to raise its profile in the global artificial intelligence (AI) community, Alibaba today announced the open-source release of its state-of-the-art AI video generation model, Wan 2.1. The action aims to drive innovation and cooperation in the AI ecosystem by providing free access to sophisticated tools capable of generating high-quality videos and images from image and text prompts.
The Wan 2.1 series, launched in January 2025, represents a significant advance in AI-driven content creation. It is the first video-generation model to offer text effects in both Chinese and English, which makes it more adaptable for a global set of users. By open-sourcing these models, Alibaba enables developers, researchers, and businesses worldwide to utilize and expand on this technology, which has the potential to catalyze the development of a broad variety of applications in numerous industries.
The move directly pits Alibaba against other AI giants, including OpenAI, that have traditionally retained proprietary ownership over their models. Alibaba’s open-source push will democratize access to sophisticated AI tools, allowing a broader community of users to engage in AI-related projects unencumbered by licensing fees or restricted access.
The debut of Wan 2.1 comes after significant development in China’s AI sector. In January 2025, Hangzhou startup DeepSeek debuted its open-source AI model, DeepSeek-R1, which gained global attention for demonstrating top-level performance at a fraction of the cost of leading AI models. DeepSeek’s solution has been particularly successful, with its large language models being adopted across numerous sectors, ranging from government and healthcare to enterprise companies, due to their affordability and open-source nature.
DeepSeek’s hype has galvanized China’s other tech giants to accelerate AI endeavors. Baidu, for instance, is set to roll out a newer version of its AI model Ernie 4.5 in mid-March 2025 with improved reasoning and multimodal capabilities. The model would also be open-sourced by June 30, as part of a broader trend among Chinese vendors for embracing open-source models for AI development.
Alibaba’s determination to push its AI and cloud computing technologies is also underscored by its massive investment plan. The company has set aside 380 billion yuan (approximately $52 billion) over three years to enhance its infrastructure and technological capabilities in both fields.
The open-source release of Wan 2.1 not only signifies Alibaba’s dedication to the establishment of an open and shared AI ecosystem but also represents a strategic response to the rapidly evolving competitive landscape of AI technology. Through the popularization of high-end AI tools, Alibaba is poised to play a leading role in mapping the future direction of AI-driven content generation and application development globally.
