Alibaba’s Qwen3-Omni Leads Global AI Ranking, Boosting Chinese Open-Source Systems

Alibaba Group Holding’s new Qwen3-Omni multimodal artificial intelligence system has quickly become the most popular model in the world’s largest open-source AI community, Hugging Face. This achievement highlights the increasing prominence of Chinese open AI systems.

Credit: QWEN.AI

A variant, Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B, secured the top spot on Hugging Face’s trending model list as of Monday. It was followed by the image editing model Qwen-Image-Edit-2509.

Overall, Alibaba’s open-source models, including a Wan video model and two visual model variants from the Qwen3-VL series, claimed half of the top 10 positions on the rankings.

Alibaba’s cloud computing unit unveiled the Qwen3-Omni series on Tuesday. The organisation described it as the first native end-to-end multimodal system.

Credit: QWEN.AI

This system unifies text, images, audio, and video within one model. Initially launched in April, Qwen3 has expanded into a family of models with various capabilities.

According to self-reported benchmark results, Qwen3-Omni demonstrated enhanced performance, outperforming its predecessor, Qwen2.5-Omni-7B, and surpassing OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s Gemini-2.5-Flash, also known as “Nano Banana”, in audio recognition, comprehension, and image and video understanding.

Qwen researcher Lin Junyang attributed the enhancements to general improvements across foundational projects related to audio and images. Mr. Lin stated the Qwen team “combined everything … to build our Qwen3-Omni,” indicating a comprehensive development approach.

Chinese technology firms Tencent Holdings, DeepSeek, and OpenBMB occupied four additional spots on the Hugging Face list. This left IBM as the only Western company in the top 10.

Alibaba has released more than 300 open-source AI models, supporting over 170,000 derivative models. This establishes its position as the world’s largest open-source AI ecosystem.

Data released last week during the company’s annual Apsara conference in Hangzhou, China’s eastern Zhejiang province, confirmed these figures.

Alibaba’s Qwen model series has surpassed Meta Platforms’ Llama, which has long been one of the most popular open model offerings due to its early-mover advantage.

As of Sept., Qwen was the most popular open AI system globally. This data was cited by the American Truly Open Models (ATOM) Project, referencing Hugging Face.

ATOM, an initiative launched by AI researcher Nathan Lambert at the Allen Institute for AI, advocates for United States investments in open-source AI development. The project aims to counter China’s rise in the field.

ATOM noted that the United States was “poised to lose [AI] leadership to China”. Chinese open models are encroaching on the market share of their United States counterparts, increasing derivative models and widening the performance gap.

ATOM stated on its website that "America’s best AI models have become more closed and restricted, while Chinese models have become more open, capturing substantial market share from businesses and researchers in the US and abroad".

---

• Alibaba’s Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B ranked as the most popular model on Hugging Face’s trending list.

• Alibaba’s models, along with other Chinese firms, hold nine of the top 10 positions on the Hugging Face ranking.

• The Qwen3-Omni series is an end-to-end multimodal system unifying text, images, audio, and video, outperforming key competitors according to self-reported benchmark results.

Source: SCMP

Jaecoo J7 Review: This EV Has Up To 1200km Of Range!

Imagine an electric vehicle that doesn’t leave you stranded when the battery dips low, one that can cruise silently through the city on pure electric power, yet always has a powerful internal combustion engine waiting in reserve.

Enter the JAECOO J7, a bold plug-in hybrid SUV with a “super hybrid” architecture that claims to push the combined driving range well beyond what most EVs can manage. With its advanced dual-mode design, this is an SUV that aims to offer both peace of mind and thrilling versatility.

Super Hybrid System: How It Achieves That Incredible Range

At the heart of the J7 is its Super Hybrid System (SHS), which merges the best of electric and traditional combustion powertrains. In this configuration, a plug-in battery and electric motor handle primary propulsion under normal conditions, while a gasoline engine helps out by sometimes assisting, sometimes generating, and sometimes taking over entirely depending on need.

In effect, the J7 behaves like a plug-in hybrid that can intelligently toggle between EV mode and HEV (hybrid) mode to optimize efficiency and extend range.

In EV mode, the J7 relies on stored battery energy for silent, zero-emission driving. When battery levels drop or when more power is needed (e.g. highway overtakes or steep climbs), the gasoline engine springs into action. In hybrid mode, the system dynamically blends electric and petrol power to maximize fuel economy, recover energy via regenerative braking, and maintain smooth transitions. The idea is that your “single charge + fuel tank” driving distance can stretch well beyond a normal EV’s limits.

JAECOO officially claims a combined driving range of 1,200 km on one full tank plus a charged battery, a number that, while ambitious, underlines the system’s intent. Because the gasoline engine doubles as a generator, it can recharge the battery as needed, allowing for extended trips without the anxiety of range limits.

Driving the J7 feels surprisingly smooth, with power delivery blending seamlessly between electric and petrol. Acceleration is responsive in EV mode, and the shift into hybrid mode is designed to be unobtrusive. The transitions are managed by software so that you rarely, if ever, feel jolts or hesitation.

Features & Tech That Elevate the Experience

You’ll find the full suite of modern EV safety and driver assistance features: Collision Warning, Blind Spot Detection, Lane Change Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, and more. The J7 also features Traffic Jam Assist, which automates steering, acceleration and braking in congested, low-speed traffic, and Rear Cross Traffic Alert, which watches for vehicles crossing behind you while reversing.

It even includes a Intelligent Avoidance System that can gently swerve within the lane to avoid large obstacles.

One standout feature is the 540-degree camera / panoramic view system, which gives you all-around visibility, helpful in tight parking, narrow streets, or tricky reversing maneuvers. The system can stitch together a 3D bird’s-eye view, letting you scrutinize surroundings from above, minimizing blind spots and parking anxiety.

The J7’s voice assistant is responsive and deep. It can perform a wide array of commands, not just turning on media or navigation, but also fine control of vehicle settings (such as opening the sunroof to a precise percentage). The sunroof also actually opens completely, a feature that’s surprisingly rare among SUVs.

Beyond being a nice-to-have gimmick, the HUD is functional: key data like speed, turn-by-turn instructions, and alerts appear directly in your line of sight. This means less head movement, quicker reaction times, and safer awareness on the go.

For audiophiles, the J7 is equipped in higher trims with a Sony 8-speaker sound system that delivers crisp, immersive sound. The infotainment system supports, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and OTA (over-the-air) updates, keeping your software fresh without needing a dealer visit.

Final Thoughts

The JAECOO J7 is an ambitious blend of electric mobility and petrol reliability, aiming to eliminate “range anxiety” while preserving the smooth, quiet experience drivers expect from EVs. Its interior is polished and tech-forward, and its features roster is strong, with a few premium touches that raise it above many rivals.

That said, real-world results will depend on local versions, firmware tuning, and driving styles. But on paper, the J7 is one of the most compelling “bridge” vehicles between pure EVs and traditional hybrids, something that lets you dip into the electric era without giving up total range security.

Qualcomm Unveils New Snapdragon Platforms for Agentic AI

Qualcomm announced two new flagship processors, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for smartphones and the Snapdragon X2 Elite for personal computers, at its annual Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Hawaii. These platforms aim to establish the silicon backbone for a new era of "agentic AI." The company’s vision centres on context-aware, multimodal, and proactive platforms, designed to anticipate user needs and react in real time.

Credit: Snapdragon

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is built on a 3-nanometre process, featuring the third-generation Oryon CPU architecture. Qualcomm claims a 20% CPU performance uplift and 35% better efficiency compared to its predecessor, with clock speeds reaching up to 4.6 GHz on its two prime cores. The new Adreno GPU architecture delivers a 23% graphics boost and 25% improved ray tracing, while the Hexagon NPU is 37% faster for on-device AI workloads.

This mobile platform is the first to support Advanced Professional Video (APV) recording, a new, royalty-free video compression standard developed by Samsung. APV is designed to provide professional-grade, near-lossless video capture on mobile devices. For gamers, the new GPU's memory optimisations, including its shared HPM cache, aim for higher frame rates and more efficient rendering, resulting in lower power consumption and longer gaming sessions.

Credit: Snapdragon

Qualcomm states the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is engineered from the ground up for agentic AI. Demos showcased AI agents capable of processing what users see and hear, and anticipating user thoughts in real time. These agents proactively offer recommendations, summarise conversations, and adjust camera settings instantly, all while maintaining data on-device for privacy.

The Snapdragon Seamless Agent was positioned as a cross-device orchestrator, managing context and continuity across phones, personal computers, earbuds, and wearables. Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer Cristiano Amon outlined the company's vision in his keynote, referring to it as the "ecosystem of you."

On the personal computer side, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon X2 Elite, the successor to last year’s Snapdragon X Elite platform. Built on an enhanced Oryon CPU architecture, the X2 Elite is designed to deliver desktop-class performance with laptop-class efficiency. Early benchmark numbers from prototype reference laptops showed multi-threaded throughput surpassing platforms from Intel, AMD, and single-threaded performance ahead of Apple’s M4.

In terms of graphics, Qualcomm presented 3DMark numbers, which were ahead of integrated graphics solutions from Intel Core Ultra 200 series Lunar Lake and AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 series in 3DMark Solar Bay. These are early, Qualcomm-provided figures.

Qualcomm's vision extends to hybrid, agentic AI, enabling models to run seamlessly across local hardware and the cloud. This approach means AI agents can handle lightweight tasks instantly on-device, while utilising larger cloud models for more complex reasoning. This hybrid method reduces latency, optimises power consumption, and enhances privacy.

Qualcomm positions its chips as the connective tissue across smartphones, personal computers, cars, wearables, and Internet of Things devices. Demos illustrated a personal computer that could summarise emails, generate Excel spreadsheet graphs in real time, and act as a research assistant by pulling context from local files and online sources. Local inference provides seamless and responsive experiences, a capability that cloud-only solutions cannot match.

The company's goal is for AI agents to evolve from passive assistants into active partners. These agents are multimodal, processing text, voice, images, and environmental context simultaneously. By continuously learning on-device, these agents will eventually adapt to individual users while keeping sensitive data private.

Snapdragon Summit 2025 highlighted Qualcomm’s extensive vision for the future of computing, driven by intelligent, personalised AI agents running on-device. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 redefines mobile performance with faster CPU, GPU, and NPU performance, alongside built-in capabilities for a new class of agentic AI.

Credit: Snapdragon

The Snapdragon X2 Elite aims to bring hybrid AI to life, combining local inference with cloud models to deliver proactive, context-aware experiences and critical task automation. The first wave of Snapdragon X2 Elite series personal computers is expected to arrive in the first half of 2026.

---

• Qualcomm unveiled Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for smartphones and Snapdragon X2 Elite for personal computers.

• Both platforms are designed to power a new era of "agentic AI" with context-aware, multimodal, and proactive capabilities.

• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 boasts significant CPU, GPU, and NPU performance gains, and is the first to support Advanced Professional Video (APV) recording.

Source: FORBES