Something is afoot in the land of Qwen (simonwillison.net)

Alibaba's Qwen team recently launched the Qwen 3.5 family of open-weight models, showcasing impressive advancements in AI with a range of sizes, from a hefty 397 billion parameters to lighter variants as small as 2 billion. However, the excitement around these models is overshadowed by the sudden resignation of key figures, including lead researcher Lin Junyang, following an internal reorganization. This shake-up has raised concerns about the future direction of Qwen at Alibaba, as several other core contributors also announced their departures. The significance of this development lies in the exceptional performance of the Qwen 3.5 models, particularly in coding tasks and multi-modal capabilities. The team's innovative approach to distilling effective results from smaller models has been a cornerstone of their success. The simultaneous loss of leadership and talent could hinder progress, potentially stalling Qwen's momentum in the competitive AI landscape. If these talented professionals move to new ventures, they may continue to push the boundaries of AI development, underscoring the ongoing evolution of technology in an increasingly competitive field.