Qwen

What it does

Qwen is Alibaba's browser assistant that records and captions speech from a tab, translates it, and summarises or explains web pages and PDFs. It is mainly aimed at Chinese-speaking students and workers who follow online classes, shows and meetings.

Key features

• Live transcription and AI subtitle translation for audio playing in a tab
• Produces summaries, chapter overviews and speaker summaries after recording
• Summarises the content of web pages and PDF documents in one click
• Explains, translates or answers questions about text you highlight
• Opens quickly with the Command+Shift+K shortcut

Use cases

• Recording an online lecture and reviewing its chapter summary later
• Getting live translated subtitles for a foreign-language show
• Quickly reading the main points of a long web page or report

Getting started

Open Qwen from the extensions menu, register and sign in, then refresh the page; to record, pick the tab to share, and view results on the Qwen website.

Good to know

An Alibaba Qwen account is required, and recorded audio and page content are processed on Alibaba's servers. The interface and store listing are primarily in Chinese.