Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is joining a plethora of global tech companies rushing to match the popular AI-powered chatbot, as it recently announced that it started working on a rival to ChatGPT.

The announcement comes days after Chinese search giant Baidu said it would complete testing of its AI chatbot in March.

ChatGPT has given rise to a boom in artificial intelligence technology, with tech giants Microsoft, Google and China's Baidu all working to develop chatbots that can mimic human speech.

The AI service, created by San Francisco company OpenAI, has caused a sensation for its ability to write essays, poems and programming code on demand within seconds, sparking widespread fears of student cheating or professions becoming obsolete.

Alibaba is now working on a ChatGPT-style conversation bot of its own that is being tested by employees, according to AFP.