BEIJING, March 11 (Reuters) - China's Manus AI announced

on Tuesday a strategic partnership with the team behind tech

giant Alibaba's ( BABA ) Qwen AI models, a move that could bolster the

artificial intelligence start-up's roll-out of what it called

the world's first general AI agent.

Unlike a chatbot, an AI agent can operate as a digital

employee, executing tasks independently and with minimal

prompts.

Manus AI launched last week, claiming that its performance

surpasses that of OpenAI's AI agent, DeepResearch.

The launch quickly went viral on Chinese social media, as

many drew parallels with the Hangzhou-based creators of the

chatbot DeepSeek, who shocked Silicon Valley by introducing an

AI chatbot comparable to OpenAI's best products at a fraction of

the cost.

The partnership with Qwen could further shake up an industry

still reeling from DeepSeek's emergence.

Manus AI, which has offices in Beijing and Wuhan and is part

of Beijing Butterfly Effect Technology Ltd Co, has marketed its

product by completing dozens of tasks for users on X for free.

However, the AI agent remains accessible by invitation only

and its website is struggling with increasing malfunctions, the

company has admitted on X.

The partnership with Qwen could help Manus deal with the

surge in traffic and expand its user base, while Alibaba ( BABA ) looks

to gain an edge over competitors like DeepSeek.

The two sides will collaborate based on Qwen's open-source

AI models and aim to integrate Manus' functions as an AI agent

with AI models and computing platforms in China, Manus said on

social media platform Weibo.

A spokesperson for Alibaba ( BABA ) confirmed the partnership.

"We look forward to collaborating with more global AI

innovators," the spokesperson said.

The team behind the Qwen AI models was one of the first to

respond to DeepSeek's global success in January, a few days

later during a public holiday releasing a model it claimed

surpassed DeepSeek-V3.