Before Apple Intelligence, Jack Ma Came Up With 'Alibaba Intelligence' But Was Mocked By Elon Musk

Apple Inc. AAPL resisted using the term "AI" until recently when it unveiled its suite of AI-powered features. However, instead of sticking to the original word, the Tim Cook-led company branded it "Apple Intelligence." But it's not the first company to do so.

What Happened: Tech titans Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba Group, and Tesla Inc. co-founder Elon Musk had a debate during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in 2019.

While discussing next-generation technologies like AI, the two got into a debate that saw Ma delivering one quip after the other as he took on Musk.

An old clip, showing the two tech billionaires fighting a battle of wits on stage, shows Ma beginning with this: “I hate the world AI called Artificial Intelligence. I call it Alibaba Intelligence.”

Musk, who was stunned initially, mocked Ma and said, “Yeah. Might end up being true. You never know.”

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However, Alibaba does have experience with AI – it claims that its most recent model, Qwen2, surpasses Meta Platforms Inc.'s Llama 3.

It has also implemented AI-powered tools to connect sellers and buyers on its e-commerce platform, Alibaba.com.

Apple Intelligence: Ma and Musk's old clip is doing the rounds once again after Cook unveiled Apple Intelligence. This is Cupertino's take on AI, and it aims at integrating cutting-edge technology across Apple's apps and services.

Some key improvements include a supercharged Siri, generative AI-powered text writing and image generation tools, photo editing features, and more.

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Photos courtesy: Shutterstock and Wikimedia

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