Amap, the mapping and navigation platform of Alibaba Group Holding, has launched new features powered by its top-ranking world model, as the tech giant doubles down on artificial intelligence to upgrade its massive consumer ecosystem.
“Flying Street View”, a new feature on the Amap app based on the unit’s self-developed system designed to simulate real-world environments, allowed users to take 3D virtual tours of restaurants and other offline venues, the company said at a launch event in Hangzhou on Wednesday. Alibaba owns the Post.
The feature was designed to give users a clearer sense of a place – such as its layout and seating areas – before making travel plans, while also helping local businesses boost offline traffic, according to the company.
Amap’s FantasyWorld model, developed by the Alibaba Amap Computer Vision Lab and released last September, was now the world’s top-performing model of its kind, surpassing domestic peers – including China Telecom’s TeleWorld and Tencent Holdings’ Voyager – according to the WorldScore benchmark, an evaluation tool built by Fei-Fei Li’s team at Stanford University.
Amap would initially offer the feature free of charge to one million businesses on the platform, helping merchants showcase their venues in a more interactive format, according to Alibaba.
The feature is part of a broader upgrade for Amap Street Stars, the AI-powered ranking tool launched last September for offline destinations such as restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions. It is the latest sign of how Alibaba is embedding AI into products across its business empire, as the Hangzhou-based tech giant intensifies its rivalry with food delivery leader Meituan.
