Alibaba unveils open-source AI model to power robots

Chinese technology giant Alibaba has launched a new open-source artificial intelligence model aimed at giving robots a functional “brain,” highlighting China’s accelerating push into embodied AI and advanced robotics.

Embodied intelligence breakthrough

The model, named RynnBrain and built on Alibaba’s Qwen3-VL architecture, is engineered to operate in physical environments rather than purely digital spaces. According to company details cited by regional media, the system is designed to perceive surroundings, perform reasoning grounded in real-world conditions, and execute complex tasks. Instead of relying solely on pre-programmed routines, the model enables robots to interpret spatial data and identify actionable possibilities in three-dimensional settings.

From observation to action

Alibaba said the technology enhances Vision-Language-Action (VLA) capabilities, allowing machines to translate visual and linguistic inputs into coordinated physical responses. Analysts note that spatial reasoning remains one of the main hurdles in robotics commercialization, and advances in this field could accelerate industrial and consumer deployment of intelligent machines. In parallel, Chinese AI firm DeepSeek announced it has expanded its large language model context window to more than one million tokens, enabling improved memory and more advanced reasoning across extended interactions.

South Korea’s semiconductor push

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy unveiled a 1 trillion-won ($692 million) project set to begin next month to develop AI semiconductors for on-device applications. The five-year plan aims to produce 10 specialized AI chips for use in autonomous vehicles, smart appliances and humanoid robots. Seoul says the initiative will help domestic firms reduce reliance on foreign chipmakers. For Türkiye and other emerging technology markets, the rapid progress in AI models and semiconductor production across East Asia signals intensifying global competition in robotics, artificial intelligence and strategic technologies.