The company announced the move in a letter to staff on Thursday, saying the initiative will focus on strengthening its foundation model research and expanding AI capabilities across the organization, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
The new task force will be coordinated by Eddie Wu, Wu Zeming, and Zhou Jingren.
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According to the company, the group will mobilize resources from across Alibaba’s divisions to accelerate AI innovation and development.
The announcement followed the departure of Lin Junyang, who said on social media that he was stepping down from his leadership role.
Lin’s exit marks the third senior executive departure from the Qwen team this year, highlighting a period of leadership change within Alibaba’s AI operations.
Despite the leadership changes, Alibaba said its long-term commitment to artificial intelligence remains unchanged.
Zhou will continue leading Tongyi Laboratory, the company’s AI research arm, which is responsible for developing large language models and other advanced AI technologies.
Alibaba said it will also direct additional resources toward AI projects as competition intensifies among global technology companies to build powerful generative AI systems.
The move underscores how Chinese tech giants are accelerating investments in AI development as they compete with leading Western companies in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence race.
