Microsoft-backed chatbot sensation ChatGPT – which can generate articles, essays, jokes and even poetry in response to prompts – has been rated the fastest-growing consumer app in history since it was launched in November.

Alibaba’s statement came after the 21st Century Herald newspaper reported the e-commerce giant is developing a ChatGPT-like dialogue robot which is currently open to employees for testing.

When asked about the newspaper report, which also said that Alibaba may combine the technology with the group’s communication app DingTalk, Alibaba declined to comment.

“Frontier innovations such as large language models and generative AI have been our focused areas since the formation of Damo in 2017,” said an Alibaba spokesman.

“As a technology leader, we will continue to invest in turning cutting-edge innovations into value-added applications for our customers as well as their end-users through cloud services,” the spokesman added.