Alibaba revealed as creator of AI video generation model ‘HappyHorse-1.0’

The mysterious AI video model rising on global leaderboards has been confirmed to be a project from the Chinese tech giant Alibaba’sA development that could increase the company’s artificial intelligence goals.

HappyHorse-1.0, which appeared on the benchmarking platform Artificial Analysis around April 7, with no links specified. climbed to the top Blind test sequences for both text-to-video and image-to-video rendering.

HappyHorse is part of Alibaba’s ATH Artificial Intelligence Innovation Unit, and the project is still in development, the developers announced in a newly created X account on Friday. Alibaba confirmed to CNBC that the post was genuine.

The anonymous release of the model led to speculation on the internet about whether the developer was a technology giant. Tencent or Alibaba or an independent developer.

Shares listed in Hong Kong Alibaba’s It closed Friday with a 2.12% increase following the news of its inclusion. Its shares rose 6.75% on Wednesday; The broader rise in technology stocks following the easing of US-Iran tensions was supported by speculation that Alibaba was behind the mysterious model.

Amid intense competition in China, Alibaba has raced to expand its AI offerings, building on its flagship Qwen broad language model and chatbot app.

While Alibaba’s previous AI model lines have included custom video creation capabilities, none have gained as much attention or ranked as high as Happy Horse in just a few days.

HappyHorse-1.0 could strengthen Alibaba’s position in the field of video production, where competitors are facing problems.

OpenAI recently discontinued its Sora video creation application and platform, citing a strategic shift to focus on coding tools, enterprise customers, and AGI development due to high computing costs.

While OpenAI’s launch could leave more room for Chinese rivals, ByteDance was recently forced to pause the rollout of its viral Sedance 2.0 following copyright disputes with major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms.

Alibaba Chief Executive Eddie Wu has made AI development a top priority for the tech giant’s expanding business, which includes chip design and data centers.

Alibaba has previously integrated AI models into other e-commerce, advertising and entertainment products, and may be aiming to do the same for Happyhorse.