The departure of the technical lead behind Alibaba Group's Qwen large language model was triggered by an internal reshuffle of responsibilities, as the company elevated the AI project to a group-level strategic priority, a source familiar with the matter told China Daily, countering speculation that the move reflected broader turmoil within the team.

The move came as Alibaba Group on Thursday denied online rumors that the core team behind its Qwen large language model had collectively resigned or that the company was scaling back its open-source strategy.

The clarification followed a brief post on social media platform X by Justin Lin Junyang, tech lead of the Qwen project, saying that he was stepping down from the role. 

Another source told China Daily that Lin, who had overseen the model's technical development, stepped down after changes to his role during an expansion of the foundation model team aimed at bringing in more senior AI researchers and deepening technical capacity.

Lin chose to resign after declining to accept the adjustment to his responsibilities, the source added.

In its statement on Thursday, the Chinese tech giant said the Qwen team remains stable and that there has been no mass resignation, adding that all products and services related to the model are operating normally.

"Qwen will continue to adhere to its open-source strategy," Alibaba said, rejecting claims circulating online that the company planned to change the model's development direction or introduce commercialization targets tied to user numbers.

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn