Alibaba’s Qwen tech lead steps down after main AI push

Alibaba’s Qwen AI mission has misplaced one in every of its most seen technical leaders only a day after the Chinese language tech large unveiled its new Qwen 3.5 open-weight small fashions.

Junyang Lin, a central technical chief on Alibaba’s Qwen staff, said in a publish on X on Tuesday that he was “stepping down” from the mission, with out elaborating. He joined Alibaba in July 2019 and have become a part of the Qwen staff in April 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The abrupt departure, which drew sturdy reactions from colleagues and business companions, comes as world competitors amongst AI builders intensifies and corporations race to construct fashions rivaling these from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

Alibaba’s Qwen household of fashions has emerged as one in every of China’s most outstanding open-weight AI efforts, with latest releases posting benchmark outcomes that always rival techniques from main U.S. builders. The Chinese language tech large launched the mannequin in April 2023 and opened it to public use that September after receiving regulatory clearance.

Alibaba introduced its Qwen 3.5 Small Mannequin collection on Monday, with 4 fashions spanning 0.8B, 2B, 4B, and 9B parameters. The techniques, the corporate mentioned, are native multimodal fashions designed for makes use of starting from on-device AI deployment to light-weight brokers. The launch drew consideration from figures within the AI neighborhood, together with Elon Musk, who wrote on X that the fashions confirmed “spectacular intelligence density.”

Lin’s departure got here simply because the Qwen staff was pushing forward with new releases, prompting unusually sturdy reactions from colleagues and companions who described his function within the mission as central.

Wenting Zhao, a analysis scientist on the Qwen staff, described Lin’s departure as “the tip of an period,” thanking him in a publish on X for serving to drive the mission’s advances in open supply AI and engineering. Yuchen Jin, chief know-how officer of AI infrastructure startup Hyperbolic, said Lin helped join Qwen with the worldwide developer neighborhood, recalling late-night collaboration with the staff throughout mannequin launches. Tiezhen Wang, head of APAC ecosystem at Hugging Face, additionally described Lin’s departure as “an immense loss” for the Qwen mission.

The circumstances surrounding Lin’s departure stay unclear. Lin didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Chen Cheng, a contributor to the Qwen mission, wrote that he was “heartbroken” by the information. In his publish on X, Cheng gave the impression to be addressing Lin instantly, writing, “I do know leaving wasn’t your alternative” and mentioned the staff had been working collectively on mannequin launches solely hours earlier.

Binyuan Hui, one other member of the Qwen staff, has updated his X profile to explain himself as “previously MTS @Alibaba_Qwen.” Nonetheless, it isn’t instantly clear whether or not he had left the corporate or when the change was made.

Alibaba didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the explanations for the transfer or on the management construction of the Qwen staff.