Alibaba’s upgraded AI assistant, Quark, launched on Mar. 13, is being hailed as the company’s “killer app” in the competitive AI agent market.

Powered by the Qwen reasoning AI model, Quark has evolved from a simple search and cloud storage tool into an advanced assistant that adapts to user intent automatically.

The AI assistant has drawn positive reviews in China, with Sohu founder Charles Zhao Chaoyang praising its efficiency, particularly in answering cosmology questions using its deep-thinking mode.

As the AI agent race heats up, Quark positions Alibaba against major rivals like Butterfly Effect’s Manus and OpenAI’s Deep Research, both designed to perform autonomous tasks for users.

Recent Alibaba developments

Timeline 13-Mar-2025 🤖 Alibaba launches new AI assistant app Quark Alibaba upgrades Quark with AI chatbot features New tools for research, drafting, and more included 13-Mar-2025 🤖 Alibaba launches AI model for emotion, visual analysis Alibaba launches R1-Omni AI emotional model Model available for free on Hugging Face platform 11-Mar-2025 🤖 Alibaba.com expects all sellers to use AI by 2025 Alibaba expects all sellers to use AI by 2025 Plans to invest $52.3B in AI and cloud infrastructure 06-Mar-2025 📈 Alibaba stock jumps 7.5% after AI model announcement Alibaba stock jumps 7.5% after AI model launch QwQ-32B model boasts efficiency with 5% data use 06-Mar-2025 🤖 Alibaba-backed robotics firm completes $69m series A LimX Dynamics raises $69M in Series A+ funding Showcases humanoid robot with 360° rotating hip joint 03-Mar-2025 💰 Alibaba-backed Chinese AI firm Zhipu secures $140m funding Zhipu secures 1B yuan in funding round. Investors include Alibaba and Tencent. ……