Alibaba sets up new task force, led by CEO Eddie Wu, to focus on AI model development
Wu affirmed in his letter that Alibaba would ‘uphold our open-source model strategy’ and scale up investment in AI
Alibaba Group Holding is forming a dedicated internal task force headed by CEO Eddie Wu Yongming in a bid to funnel greater resources into its foundational AI model development efforts.
“In technology, standing still means falling behind,” Wu said in the letter, which was provided to the South China Morning Post by Alibaba, owner of the SCMP. “Advancing foundation models is a core strategic priority for our future.”
The task force will comprise Eddie Wu; Zhou Jingren, CTO of Alibaba Cloud; and Wu Zeming, head of the firm’s food delivery business.
The letter comes a day after the resignation of Lin Junyang, the technical lead for Alibaba’s flagship Qwen foundational models, which he announced on X, sending shock waves through the global open-source AI community.
Lin’s sudden departure, along with recent departures of other senior technical figures, has sparked intense speculation about the future of Alibaba’s AI model development, including whether the Hangzhou-based tech giant will continue open-sourcing its models.