Alibaba ramps up AI spending as Lunar New Year chatbot battle grows

BEIJING, China: China's Lunar New Year shopping and travel rush is once again becoming a high-stakes battleground for tech giants, with Alibaba committing hundreds of millions of dollars to win users for its artificial intelligence chatbot.

Alibaba said it will spend three billion yuan (US$431 million) to promote its Qwen AI app during the holiday period, sharply escalating competition with rivals as China's lea