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Crypto Biz: Global AI race ramps up, Winklevoss $100M loan to Gemini, and more

Recent days have seen new players emerge in the race for artificial intelligence, with business giants announcing AI initiatives.

The artificial intelligence (AI) global race has taken on new players in the past days, with Twitter and Alibaba reportedly integrating the technology into their businesses. The Chinese giant is working on its own chatbot assistant, while the social media platform is apparently leveraging AI to “detect & highlight manipulation of public opinion”. It’s worth remembering that Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently spearheaded a letter calling for the halt of advanced AI development due to societal concerns. As the proverb says, “if you can’t beat your enemy, join them”.

While the AI landscape is taking shape, crypto exchange Gemini has secured a $100 million personal loan from its founders, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Funding comes after alleged external capital raising attempts failed.

This week’s Crypto Biz looks at the AI market competition worldwide, the Winklevoss’ loan to Gemini and MetaMask move to allow crypto purchases.

Winklevoss twins infuse Gemini with $100M personal loan

Co-founders of crypto exchange Gemini Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have reportedly dipped into their own pockets to fund the business amid the crypto market downturn through a personal $100 million loan. The cash injection follows previous attempts to raise capital from outside investors. The Winklevoss brothers are funding Gemini amid regulatory scrutiny in the United States. In January, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Gemini with offering unregistered securities through the exchange’s Earn program.

Elon Musk reportedly buys thousands of GPUs for Twitter AI project

Tech billionaire Elon Musk seems to be making progress with his plans on developing Twitter’s artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. According to anonymous sources familiar with the company, the Twitter CEO recently purchased nearly 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) to be used on the platform. Typically, GPUs work on large-scale AI models due to the massive computation power required by the technology. The alleged purchase comes a few days after Musk spearheaded a letter calling for the halt of AI development due to societal concerns.

In the months ahead, we will use AI to detect & highlight manipulation of public opinion on this platform.

Let’s see what the psy ops cat drags in …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2023

MetaMask launches new fiat purchase function for cryptocurrency

MetaMask has announced the launch of a new feature that will allow users to purchase crypto with fiat currency directly from its Portfolio Dapp. According to MetaMask, the goal is to offer users an easier way to purchase crypto with fiat currency. A wide range of cryptocurrencies are available for purchase in the feature through debit and credit cards, as well as PayPal, bank transfers, and instant ACH (Automated Clearing House). The service will be rolled out to users in over 189 countries across eight different networks. MetaMask claims the service takes the user’s location into account and follows local regulations.

Tech giant Alibaba to roll out ChatGPT competitor AI

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is joining the global artificial intelligence (AI) race with its own version of a chatbot assistant. Alibaba announced the rollout of the ChatGPT-like product in the “near future.” The new product will be called Tongyi Qianwen, which translates to English as “seeking an answer by asking a thousand questions.“ The chatbot will be first available in English and Mandarin. It will be also integrated with Alibaba’s vast ecosystem of tech businesses, including the workplace messaging app, DingTalk, and voice assistant smart speaker, Tmall Genie.

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Tech giant Alibaba to roll out ChatGPT competitor AI

Tongyi Qianwen, the company’s AI chatbot, will be rolled out in the near future and integrated with Alibaba’s tech ecosystem.

Chinese e-commerce giant enters the global artificial intelligence (AI) race with its own version of a chatbot assistant. Alibaba announced the rollout of the ChatGPT-like product in the “near future.”

According to a BBC report from April 11, the new product will be called Tongyi Qianwen, which translates to English as “seeking an answer by asking a thousand questions.“ The chatbot will be integrated with Alibaba’s vast ecosystem of tech businesses, including the workplace messaging app, DingTalk, and voice assistant smart speaker, Tmall Genie.

The chatbot will be able to communicate in English and Mandarin at the first stage. Its task scope includes turning conversations into written notes, writing emails and drafting business proposals. The main intrigue, however, is whether Tongyi Qianwen could work on more creative tasks like its American counterpart.

ChatGPT was released by OpenAI in November 2022 and later integrated into the Microsoft’s internet browser, Bing. Generative AI made global headlines due to its ability to provide sophisticated information responses in a casual chat-like manner, mimic different writing styles by command and ultimately help users to create all kinds of texts, from academic research to movie scripts.

Earlier, Google’s parent company, Alphabet and Chinese tech behemoth, Baidu, announced the development of their versions of AI chatbots named Bard and Ernie, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Cyberspace Administration of China will require chatbot developers to ensure that AI-generated content is “accurate” and doesn’t “endanger security.” According to article four of its guidelines, once made open for public feedback on April 11, such content should “reflect the core values of socialism, and must not contain subversion of state power.”

Magazine: AI and blockchain could transform the courtroom

Jack Ma surrenders control of fintech giant Ant Group

After founding Ant Group in 2014, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is now ceding control of the company as part of Ant’s corporate structure changes.

Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, will no longer control the fintech giant Ant Group as part of recent changes to the company’s corporate structure.

Ant Group officially announced that Ma has agreed to give up control of Ant Group as part of the company’s further corporate governance optimization and restructuring.

Before the change, Ma was the control person in Ant, exercising control over the company through related entities in addition to his 10% stake in Ant.

Once the restructuring process is complete, no single shareholder will have control over Ant, the company said in a statement. Major shareholders like Hangzhou Junhan and Hangzhou Junao will independently exercise their voting rights in Ant, the firm noted.

“The adjustment will not result in any change to the economic interests of any shareholders of Ant Group and their beneficiaries,” Ant added.

According to some analysts, Ant’s restructuring and Ma’s relinquishing control over the company could positively impact the firm in the long term.

Wang Pengbo, a senior financial analyst at BoTong Analysys, believes that the new company structure with more diversified voting rights is more stable. “It paves the way for it to go public in future, although a listing in the immediate future is very unlikely,” he noted.

Amid the news of Ma surrendering control over Ant, shares of Ant-affiliated company Alibaba have jumped significantly. Alibaba stock has rallied nearly 10% on the New York Stock Exchange since Ant made the announcement, according to data from TradingView.

*Alibaba’s stock 30-day price chart. Source: TradingView*

As previously reported, Ant attempted to conduct the largest initial public offering (IPO) in 2020, planning to raise about $30 billion. The Chinese government eventually opted to halt Ant’s IPO, as local authorities wanted to assert their power over private businesses.

After the IPO suspension, Ant has continued to actively explore the benefits of blockchain and digital assets. Owning the world’s largest digital payment platform Alipay, Ant continued to be involved in developing China’s national digital currency after starting cooperation with the People’s Bank of China in 2017.

The company is also among Chinese tech giants that created blockchain alliances over the past few years for related operations. The company has been actively developing its blockchain business, AntChain, introducing new products in 2022.

Despite its apparent interest in blockchain and related technologies, Ant has still moved to comply with China’s negative stance on crypto. As Cointelegraph reported in March 2022, Ant Group was among firms enforcing some restrictions on their nonfungible token platforms, fearing the government’s crackdown.

Gate.io experiences slowdown in deposits and withdrawals due to node maintenance

The crypto exchange says that user funds are safe and that transactions are still being processed.

Users of the crypto exchange Gate.io are facing slow deposits and withdrawals on transactions due to a node maintenance from a third-party cloud provider, according to a Dec. 18 announcement.

Gate.io said that transactions are still being processed and claimed that user funds are safe. The company stated:

“At this moment, we are monitoring the network connection status of our cloud service providers and will expedite the deposits and withdrawals as soon as the network connection is restored.”

It is unclear if the delay in transactions is related to OKX’s outage, which was caused by a hardware failure at a Hong Kong data center of its primary infrastructure provider, Alibaba Cloud. As reported by Cointelegraph, Alibaba’s Cloud server went offline on Dec. 17 and failed to recover for over fifteen hours, during which users could not withdraw and deposit funds.

While OKX trading services have resumed several hours later, while Gate.io users on Twitter are still experiencing problems with transactions.

Alibaba’s Cloud services were interrupted a few days after the company announced it was developing its first Blockchain Node Service. Set for launch in the first quarter of 2023, the service aims to make it easier for organizations to build blockchain applications.

According to Alibaba, the new platform-as-a-service solution will aid developers by reducing operational and maintenance time. The company claimed its infrastructure will allow node hosts to actively monitor nodes and automatically switch in case of an outage. “As it doesn’t require hands-on monitoring or problem mitigation, developers are free to concentrate on product development and thus speed up the pace of the product roll-out process.”, Alibaba’s said.

Alibaba Cloud is the digital technology backbone of Alibaba Group. Earlier this month, Avalanche blockchain partnered with Alibaba Cloud’s Node-as-a-Service initiative, Cointelegraph reported.

OKX cites intermittent outage amid Alibaba Cloud equipment anomaly

Alibaba Cloud Hong Kong IDC Zone C server went offline on Saturday at roughly 10 pm ET and failed to recover for over 7 hours at the time of reporting.

Crypto exchange OKX witnessed service disruptions after primary infrastructure provider Alibaba Cloud announced a hardware failure in Alibaba Cloud’s Hong Kong data center.

Alibaba Cloud Hong Kong IDC Zone C server went offline on Saturday at roughly 10 pm ET and failed to recover for over seven hours at the time of reporting. On-chain data further confirms that OKX processed no transactions during this timeline.

*Partial list of Alibaba Cloud’s global infrastructure. Source: Alibaba Cloud*

Alibaba Cloud’s website shows that the Hong Kong (China) server hosts three availability zones, which have been operational since 2014. The cloud provider confirmed the outage through an official announcement, as shown below.

*Alibaba Cloud’s official announcement about service disruption that affected OKX’s service. Source: Alibaba Cloud*

While announcing the service disruption, OKX revealed that it is working together with Alibaba Cloud to resolve the issues. “Funds are safe. Sorry for any inconvenience caused,” the announcement added.

There is currently an intermittent connection error with our cloud provider which is affecting the user experience. Our dev team is resolving it with them. Funds are safe. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

— OKX (@okx) December 18, 2022

In the meantime, users cannot withdraw and deposit funds, while some claim that their account balances have glitched to show $0 in their funds. Many investors have confirmed that their trades got stuck midway and have shown concerns about possible losses.

OKX has not yet to responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

In early December, Avalanche blockchain entered into a partnership to power Alibaba Cloud’s Node-as-a-Service initiatives.

APAC’s largest cloud service provider, Alibaba Cloud, has expanded support for #Avalanche!

This integration enables developers to easily launch their own validator nodes, with access to @alibaba_cloud‘s plug-and-play infrastructure and suite of products.https://t.co/MlXTOYuJgG

— Avalanche (@avalancheavax) December 2, 2022

As Cointelegraph reported, the partnership is aimed at developing new tools for launching validator nodes on Avalanche’s public blockchain platform in Asia. The integration will allow Avalanche developers to use Alibaba Cloud’s plug-and-play infrastructure as a service to launch new validators.

During the announcement, it was revealed that Avalanche hosts over 1,200 validators and processes roughly 2 million daily transactions.

Malaysian bank works on crypto-friendly ‘super app’ with Ant Group tech

Expected to launch in early 2023, Kenanga’s crypto-friendly super app will feature digital investment management, e-wallet, FX, stock trading and other services.

Malaysia continues accelerating its pace of cryptocurrency adoption as one of the major local banks is moving into cryptocurrency trading as part of its default banking offerings.

Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad, one of the largest private investment banks with more than 500,000 customers, has partnered with China’s tech giant Ant Group to launch a crypto-friendly wallet and trading application.

According to an announcement on Wednesday, Kenanga has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ant to jointly develop Malaysia’s wealth application called categorized as a super app. Under the terms of the agreement, Ant’s digital technology unit will provide Kenanga with mPaaS, a mobile development platform originating from AliPay App.

“Adopted by many businesses to build new apps and optimize the performance of existing apps, our financial-grade mPaaS mobile development platform is well-positioned to support Kenanga in integrating a wide range of products and services into its SuperApp,” Ant’s digital tech president Geoff Jiang noted.

The super app is designed to revolutionize the way of managing wealth in Malaysia by integrating diverse financial services like stock trading, digital investment management, crypto trading, digital wallet, foreign currency exchange and others into a single platform. Kenanga reportedly plans to launch the app in early 2023.

“We look forward to not only unifying a broad spectrum of financial offerings under one roof, but more importantly, to make wealth creation more accessible by democratizing financial services for the millions of Malaysians,” Kenanga Group managing director Datuk Chay Wai Leong said.

He also mentioned that Kenanga started experimenting with digital financial services five years ago, and the new application would bring the company’s growth to the next level. As previously reported, Kenanga has been an active player in the crypto industry, investing in local crypto exchange operators like Tokenize Technology in 2021.

Kenanga is also a known partner of the Japanese crypto-friendly retail firm Rakuten, providing Malaysia’s local online stock trading platform Rakuten Trade.

The cryptocurrency industry has seen some action in Malaysia in recent months, with local officials reportedly calling the government to legalize crypto in March 2022. While crypto investment and trading have been legal in Malaysia, the government opposed the idea of adopting crypto as a legal tender.

Alibaba Cloud launches NFT solution… then quickly memory holes it

The firm’s NFT marketplace solution included “web hosting, digital marketing & content delivery” infrastructure, but is no longer listed on its website despite still showing up in Google search results.

The cloud business unit of Chinese marketplace giant Alibaba Group Holdings launched a new NFT solution and then promptly deleted all mention of it online.

According to a now-deleted Twitter post announcing the launch on June 8, the firm’s NFT marketplace solution included “web hosting, digital marketing & content delivery” infrastructure, but is no longer listed on its website despite.

There are also no press releases or announcements related to the NFT solution on Alibaba’s website anymore, and while the solution’s webpage link still shows up in Google search results, it now redirects to Alibaba Cloud’s solution index page.

*Deleted Alibaba Cloud tweet: WayBackMachine*

The reason behind the deleted social media posts and delisting on its website are unclear at this stage. While crypto trading and mining are banned in China, there is a regulatory gray area with NFTs in the country — officials frown upon it but are yet to issue an outright ban.

The shortly lived NFT focused solution was set to offer Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS) and Auto Scaling for marketplace growth, an SMS-integrated digital marketing service for sellers to connect with buyers, and a Global Delivery Service – Alibaba Cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Server Load Balancer (SLB) capable of supporting 100,000 queries per second.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) — which is owned by Alibaba — noted that the solution was intended for customers outside of mainland China, with a representative telling the publication that the solution was for Alibaba Cloud’s international website only.

The SCMP also stated that Alibaba affiliated companies such as Ant Group and Tencent Holdings have moved to avoid any potential regulatory pushback in the past by branding their listed NFTs as “digital collectibles.” They are also offered on private blockchains and are traded/purchased using Chinese fiat currency.

Alibaba Cloud does still have a new Metaverse-focused solution listed on its website that offers remote rendering, data analytics and AI, along with Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) as part of the private Alibaba Cloud Blockchain.

Under the Metaverse solution, the company does note that NFTs can be integrated into a Metaverse built off of Alibaba’s services, but the firm does not provide any of that specific infrastructure.

In April, the China Banking Association, the China Internet Finance Association and the Securities Association of China issued a joint statement warning the public away from investing in NFTs due to “hidden risks” of the assets. They also noted that businesses should not consider NFTs like other financial products such as securities, precious metals, and other financial products.

Cointelegraph also reported in March that Chinese social media giants such as WeChat and WhaleTalk updated their policies to restrict or remove NFT platforms from their networks, citing a lack of regulatory clarity and fearing a government crackdown. However, Beijing is still yet to issue a blanket ban on the sector.

Alibaba Cloud launches NFT solution, then quickly memory holes it

The firm’s NFT marketplace solution included “web hosting, digital marketing & content delivery” infrastructure but is no longer listed on its website despite still showing up in Google search results.

The cloud business unit of Chinese marketplace giant Alibaba Group Holdings launched a new nonfungible token (NFT) solution and then promptly deleted all mention of it online.

According to a now-deleted Twitter post announcing the launch on Wednesday, the firm’s NFT marketplace solution included “web hosting, digital marketing & content delivery” infrastructure but is no longer listed on its website.

There are also no press releases or announcements related to the NFT solution on Alibaba’s website anymore. Meanwhile, the solution’s webpage link still shows up in Google search results and now redirects to Alibaba Cloud’s solution index page.

The reason behind the deleted social media posts and delisting on its website is unclear at this stage. While crypto trading and mining are banned in China, there is a regulatory gray area with NFTs in the country — officials frown upon it but are yet to issue an outright ban.

The shortly lived NFT-focused solution was set to offer Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS) and Auto Scaling for marketplace growth, an SMS-integrated digital marketing service for sellers to connect with buyers, and a Global Delivery Service, Alibaba Cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Server Load Balancer (SLB) capable of supporting 100,000 queries per second.

Alibaba Cloud does still have a new metaverse-focused solution listed on its website that offers remote rendering, data analytics and AI, along with Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) as part of the private Alibaba Cloud Blockchain.

Under the metaverse solution, the company notes that NFTs can be integrated into a metaverse built off of Alibaba’s services, but the firm does not provide any of that specific infrastructure.

In April, the China Banking Association, the China Internet Finance Association and the Securities Association of China issued a joint statement warning the public from investing in NFTs due to “hidden risks” of the assets. They also noted that businesses should not consider NFTs like other financial products such as securities, precious metals and other financial products.