This article focuses on the departure of Lin Junyang, delving into the challenges Alibaba faces in AI management. Lin Junyang, who served as the head of the Qwen team at Alibaba for seven years, learned on March 3 from Alibaba Cloud CTO Zhou Jingren about potential adjustments to the Qwen team, including restructuring and the addition of new members. Lin reacted strongly, stating his intention to resign in a DingTalk group and officially announcing his resignation on social media in the early hours of the 4th. Alibaba's management responded swiftly, discussing the matter overnight and convening an all-hands meeting on the afternoon of the 4th, attended by senior executives including Wu Yongming, who addressed the team's concerns. On the morning of the 5th, Wu confirmed via email the acceptance of Lin's resignation application. Although the Qwen team was relatively independent and had achieved certain successes in the AI field, as it developed, its goals diverged from Alibaba Group's strategy. Alibaba placed greater emphasis on the commercialization of AI cloud and the battle for App dominance, while Qwen pursued technological leadership and encountered setbacks during training. Lin, with a non-typical academic background, possessed unique management philosophies. During AI R&D, tensions arose between the organizational processes and collective goals emphasized by the company and the personal will of frontline researchers. This incident at Alibaba highlights the company's management challenges in accommodating individual will, building fully integrated teams, and balancing R&D with commercialization—a growth challenge faced by both the company and its young technical leaders.
