2026-06-15
From Wuzhao to Zhou Jingren: Alibaba Has the Best AI and the Hardest Execution. The One Thing It Lacks Is Judgment
In a single week, Wuzhao was pushed out of DingTalk, and word spread that Chief Scientist Zhou Jingren was leaving too, six days after he took the title. Alibaba quickly denied the Zhou rumor, but the steady exit of Tongyi's core people this year is very real. Put it all together and you see something strange: Alibaba owns the strongest AI model in China and the most relentless execution culture there is, yet its technical talent and its product captains keep walking out the door. The problem isn't the technology. It isn't the execution. It's the one seat nobody can fill: judgment.