- tech360.tv
Trip.com Unveils Wendao: A Language Model Revolutionising Travel Services with AI
Updated: Jan 8
[Edited] Trip.com launches Wendao, its own large language model, empowering travellers with accurate voyage data and AI-driven recommendations, marking a significant step towards enhancing the travel process and overall experience.
Trip.com Group, China's leading online travel services provider, has introduced its large language model (LLM) called Wendao. Wendao, meaning "ask for your ways" in Chinese, aims to leverage advanced AI technology to offer precise travel information and deal suggestions. At a recent corporate event in Shanghai, Trip.com showcased Wendao's capabilities, affirming the company's commitment to technological development in the travel industry.
LLMs are deep-learning AI algorithms that can comprehend, summarise, translate, predict and generate content using extensive data sets. Trip.com's travel-centric Wendao LLM, currently in the testing phase and accessible to a select group of users, has been trained with 20 billion high-quality travel-related data sets, including the company's real-time data and proprietary search algorithm, according to James Liang Jianzhang, Trip.com's co-founder and executive chairman.
Liang explained the significance of vertical LLMs, stating, "The opportunity for vertical LLMs is that AIGC (artificial intelligence-generated content) has met a tremendous challenge – their responses are not reliable." To ensure Wendao delivers the most accurate responses, Trip.com invested substantial effort in manual verification of the AI-generated answers, as stated by the company.
Trip.com's LLM initiative aligns with China's broader tech industry striving to bridge the gap with the West in developing ChatGPT-like services. Beijing has intensified its AI regulation efforts by implementing a national standard for LLMs. Following the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November, Chinese tech giants are racing to create alternative services, with the government envisioning AI development as a means to enhance efficiency in traditional industries and drive post-pandemic growth.
In addition to providing users with precise travel information and recommendations, Trip.com has utilised the LLM technology to streamline its own operations. Jane Sun Jie, the company's CEO, highlighted Wendao's positive impact on Trip.com's customer service. Wendao has empowered Trip.com's automated online chat, email and hotline-based customer support, available in over 20 languages. Sun revealed that this implementation has saved the global customer service unit more than 10,000 working hours daily, enabling the team to focus on presale activities.
"We're thrilled to enable Trip.com customer service representatives to take on more creative roles," said Sun.
This year, prominent Chinese tech companies, including Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings, Huawei Technologies Co and JD.com, have launched their respective LLM applications, aiming for widespread adoption across diverse industries. It's worth noting that Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Trip.com Group launches its own large language model (LLM) called Wendao, enhancing travel services with AI.
Wendao is trained with 20 billion quality travel-relevant data sets, backed by real-time data and proprietary search algorithm.
Trip.com aims to improve the travel process and overall experience through advanced AI-driven services.
Source: SCMP