Core Insights - Alibaba Quark is secretly advancing an AI initiative known as "C Plan," focusing on conversational AI applications, with a significant involvement from the core Quark team and senior members of Tongyi Lab [1] Group 1 - The "C Plan" has been in development for a considerable time within Quark, with the upcoming results being only a phase of the overall project [1] - The initiative is described as requiring long-term investment and dependent on breakthroughs in model technology [1] - There are various speculations regarding the origin of the "C" in "C Plan," with one theory suggesting it stands for "Chat," indicating a new conversational format, while another more provocative theory links it to the classic game "Pac-Man," suggesting a direct competition with ByteDance's Doubao [1]