Alibaba shifts its AI team to focus more on paid models than open source

In short: Alibaba is reorganizing its AI work to prioritize models it can sell, which may reduce its emphasis on open-source Qwen releases.

What's going on

Alibaba has put Zhou Jingren, a former top executive at Alibaba Cloud, in charge of its AI division. The change follows internal disagreements about strategy and the departure of senior members of the Qwen team, according to the Financial Times.

Qwen is a well-known “open-source” AI model, meaning the model can be downloaded and used by others for free, like a recipe anyone can copy and cook at home. The report says Alibaba is now leaning more toward “closed” or proprietary models, which customers access through Alibaba’s cloud service and pay for.

Alibaba already earns much of its AI-related cloud revenue by renting out powerful computer chips called GPUs (special hardware used to run AI) to customers. Now it wants a bigger share of spending by selling access to its own models and building AI features into its online shopping businesses. CEO Eddie Wu has described a “model-as-a-service” plan, where companies pay based on how much they use a model, but the FT says this is still a small part of revenue and faces tough competition.

What to watch

Developers around the world rely on Qwen because it is open source and can run efficiently on lower-cost hardware. If Alibaba keeps its best models closed, some developers may switch to other open models, and companies may have fewer strong free options to build on. The FT also notes Alibaba plans to keep releasing open-source models in some areas, so the key question is how much of Qwen stays openly available.

Source: Financial Times