(Yicai) April 11 -- Artificial intelligence should not replace humans but liberate, understand, and serve humanity, according to Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma.

“We are not trying to make machines like humans, but rather to enable machines to understand humans, think like humans, and do things that humans cannot do,” Ma told staff at a meeting of Alibaba's cloud computing unit yesterday. AI should protect the human world, he noted.

Alibaba plans to invest more than CNY380 billion (USD52.4 billion) building AI and cloud infrastructure over the next three years, Eddie Wu, chief executive of the Chinese internet giant, said on Feb. 24. Alibaba Cloud is one of the Hangzhou-based group’s core businesses in the AI era.

Alibaba Cloud's resources and technical talent are not only the foundation of confidence in the development of cloud computing and AI, but also a significant responsibility, noted Ma, who retired as Alibaba’s executive chairman in September 2019. His appearance at Alibaba Cloud’s fiscal year kickoff meeting yesterday was a rare event.

In looking back on Alibaba’s 25-year history last September, Ma said the company believes that technology can and must help every ordinary person. He noted that when there were no payment services, Alibaba built them; when there were no logistics, Alibaba joined in; when there was no internet infrastructure, it invested in cloud computing; and when credit was worthless, Alibaba made it invaluable.

Alibaba plans to increase its investment in three major AI areas, Wu said: infrastructure construction for AI and cloud computing, AI foundational model platforms and AI-native applications, as well as AI transformation and upgrading of existing businesses.

Before 2023, Alibaba's spending on AI as a share of its total investment was just 4 percent, according to data from Tianyi Think Tank. That soared to 50 percent after 2023. The company has invested in a number of Chinese AI unicorns, including Zhipu AI, MiniMax, and Moonshot AI.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev