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

In a surprising turn of events, Alibaba's Qwen AI initiative has lost a key technical figure, Junyang Lin, just one day after the company launched its new Qwen 3.5 open-weight small models. Lin, who has been a pivotal part of the Qwen team since April 2023, announced his departure on X, but did not provide any details about his decision. Having joined Alibaba in July 2019, Lin's exit has raised eyebrows within the tech community, especially as the race among AI developers heats up globally. Companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are making significant strides, and Alibaba's Qwen models have established themselves as formidable contenders in China, often achieving benchmark results that rival those of their American counterparts. The Qwen 3.5 Small Model series, which was introduced on Monday, includes four models with parameter sizes ranging from 0.8 billion to 9 billion. These multimodal models are designed for various applications, including on-device AI and lightweight agents. The launch has garnered attention from industry figures, including Elon Musk, who praised the models for their “impressive intelligence density.” Lin's sudden departure comes at a crucial time for the Qwen team, prompting strong reactions from colleagues and industry partners who viewed him as a central figure in the project's development. Wenting Zhao, a research scientist within the team, referred to Lin's exit as “the end of an era,” expressing gratitude for his contributions to open-source AI advancements. Yuchen Jin, CTO of AI infrastructure startup Hyperbolic, reminisced about late-night collaborative efforts with Lin during critical model launches, indicating his significant role in bridging Qwen with the global developer community. Tiezhen Wang from Hugging Face echoed these sentiments, calling Lin's departure “an immense loss” for the initiative. The specifics surrounding Lin's exit remain unclear, as he has not responded to requests for comments. Fellow contributor Chen Cheng expressed his heartbreak over the news, suggesting that Lin's decision might not have been voluntary. Additionally, there have been changes in the team’s composition, with Binyuan Hui updating his profile to reflect a departure status, though the details of this change are still uncertain. Alibaba has yet to comment on the circumstances leading to Lin's exit or on the future leadership plans for the Qwen project.