A new video generation model quietly unveiled by Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding has overtaken Seedance 2.0, ByteDance’s most advanced model, as the world’s top-ranked artificial intelligence video tool based on an evaluation by a benchmark site, offering a glimpse into the AI talent race as the market heats up.

The HappyHorse 1.0 model, which was still under internal beta testing, was developed by the Innovation Business Unit under the e-commerce giant’s newly formed Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) business group, a spokeswoman for ATH told the South China Morning Post on Friday, adding that the unit had more product releases in its pipeline. Alibaba owns the SCMP.

The HappyHorse model was currently ranked the world’s top AI model in both text-to-video and image-to-video categories by consultancy Artificial Analysis, ahead of ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 in both metrics.

The benchmark ranks AI video models using a rating system that measures performance through head-to-head comparisons, with scores informed by human preferences and adjusted dynamically based on relative performance, making it a robust gauge of model quality.

HappyHorse’s debut on the global stage, and its eclipsing of Seedance and Kuaishou’s Kling AI tools – both ranked among the world’s leading video models, has also put the spotlight on its creator, Zhang Di, who has been away from Alibaba for five years.

Zhang led the months-long HappyHorse project after he rejoined Alibaba in November, according to a person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity as they were not authorised to speak with media.