Alibaba launches AI-assisted slide-deck creation tool through cloud storage platform Quark

Alibaba Group Holding's web search and cloud storage platform Quark has launched a large-language-model (LLM) application designed to help users make presentation slides, as Chinese Big Tech companies accelerate their push to find practical uses for generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Quark's new service, called AI PPT, lets users create their own topics or choose from a list that includes options, such as an online marketing campaign, a business plan, or product launch event. Once users confirm an outline generated by the app, it will produce a relevant slide deck based on a design template.

The tool, accessible through smartphones, is able to create a set of slides in just seconds, according to a test done by the Post on Friday.

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AI PPT gives users the flexibility to tweak the outline by adding or deleting elements. Users can also fine-tune a template for greater customisation.

AI PPT is designed to help users make presentation slides. Photo: Screenshot alt=AI PPT is designed to help users make presentation slides. Photo: Screenshot>

By combining "content and intelligent tools", the service is expected to raise users' productivity, Zhang Fan, head of Quark's search product, said in a statement earlier this week.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The launch of AI PPT comes after Quark launched its self-developed LLM in November. At the time, Quark said the model contained hundreds of billions of parameters and its intended usage scenarios ranged from online search and medical to education and office productivity.

LLMs are the technology that underpins OpenAI's ChatGPT and similar chatbots. These models' sophistication and capabilities are partly measured by their parameters. For instance, ChatGPT was trained on 175 billion parameters.

Quark is one of four "strategic-level innovation businesses" designated by Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu Yongming late last year. These units have been given the freedom to devise their own strategies and experiment with new ideas to compete in the larger market, according to Wu during his first post-earnings conference call with analysts as group chief executive.

Quark's automated deck-making service offers free trials for initial uses. After that, it is available only to subscribers of Quark's online document service at 19 yuan (US$2.66) a month for a maximum of 30 uses each month.

Chinese Big Tech companies are racing to entice users to their new AI services catering to various industries. Search giant and Chinese AI pioneer Baidu last year launched the paid version of its Ernie Bot, charging a monthly fee of 59.9 yuan for access to a more advanced version of its ChatGPT equivalent.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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