Alibaba Unveils Leading AI Agent for In-Depth Research

Alibaba introduces a leading AI agent for deep research, rivaling OpenAI's tool.

Chinese tech giant Alibaba has introduced a “leading AI agent” with open-source capabilities for in-depth research. Its features are comparable to OpenAI’s flagship Deep Research tool.

Ever wish your AI could think like a real researcher? Huifeng Yin introduces WebSailor, a free and open-source model built to handle deep, multi-step questions with ease. With self-developed datasets and algorithms such as SailorFog-QA and DUPO, it’s one of the top performers out… pic.twitter.com/Z8hIRsRPpy

— Alibaba Group (@AlibabaGroup) September 17, 2025

Tongyi DeepResearch is integrated into the Amap mapping application and the AI-based legal research system Tongyi FaRui.

Users can employ the deep research mode for planning multi-day trips and finding legal precedents with verified references.

The new service complements the evolving AI initiatives of the Chinese tech giant. In the past two weeks, the company launched its first trillion-parameter model, Qwen-3-Max-Preview, as well as a more compact and powerful version, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B.

According to Alibaba, its Tongyi DeepResearch demonstrated “remarkable efficiency” compared to proprietary tools from the US, as it contains only 30 billion parameters.

It achieved leading scores in popular benchmarks, including Humanity’s Last Exam, scoring 32.9% against OpenAI’s Deep Research at 26.6%.

Hugging Face manager Adena Yakefu described the results as “stunning.” The AI code is open, allowing developers worldwide to download and enhance it.

Researcher Tan Xijun from the Sky Computing Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, noted that Alibaba’s strength lies in its data preparation approach. Synthetic samples of “very high quality” were used for training.

The Chinese company employed a new technique to apply a mechanism where information generated during training was reused to improve the model without human intervention.

The company acknowledged that the 128,000-token context limit remains a factor hindering the execution of some research tasks requiring longer input data.

Jack Ma Returns

After several years of absence, Jack Ma is once again actively involved in Alibaba’s affairs. He visits the company’s campuses and has a noticeable impact on strategic decisions—from billion-dollar subsidies in the rivalry with JD.com and Meituan to a heightened focus on artificial intelligence.

Ma holds no official position but acts as an “invisible hand”—demanding regular updates, inspiring employees, critiquing strategy, and boosting morale. His return is seen as a signal of easing government pressure on the tech sector and a new bet by China on artificial intelligence as a driver of long-term growth.

Alibaba has focused on regaining its position in e-commerce, directing hundreds of billions of yuan into AI and cloud technologies. The company has lost its former market leadership, but Ma is attempting to “make Alibaba great again” and “restore the old startup spirit,” despite fierce competition and increasing regulatory scrutiny.

In July, Alibaba introduced Quark AI glasses, offering voice control, real-time translation, and transcription.

Earlier that month, the tech giant launched the “most advanced AI tool for programming”—the open-source AI model Qwen3-Coder.