The algorithms have the potential to provide “robust big data and advanced machine learning skills”

Credit: ID 51178865 © Minipig5188 | Dreamstime.com

Alibaba Cloud has released source codes of its machine learning Alink platform, which was responsible for powering its parent company’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, to GitHub.



According to the cloud-computing and machine-intelligence unit of Alibaba Group, the platform contains a collection of algorithms for processing machine-learning task data, like artificial intelligence (AI) driven customer services and product recommendations.

Jia Yangqing, president and senior fellow of the data platform division at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said the release of Alink on GitHub provides developers with “robust big data and advanced machine learning skills”.

Alibaba’s use of the platform included e-commerce sites like Tmall during 11.11 sales this year.

Due to its listing, developers can now use the source code in their own solutions, with examples including predictions in real-time, personalised recommendations, statistical analysis and abnormality detection, according to a post on Alizila, a news hub for Alibaba Group.

Yangqing added that she was committed to connecting with the open-source community as early as possible in software development cycles.

The Alink platform was developed on open-source data processing framework Apache Flink.

Machine learning is an area that Alibaba has been working in over the last year, with the announcement of an AI chip, Hanguang 800, to enhance its cloud services back in September.