Jack Ma gathers with core executives of Alibaba and Ant Group for a rare meeting, discussing AI and education at the first stop of the New Year kickoff

According to 1M AI News monitoring, yesterday Jack Ma appeared at Hangzhou Cloud Valley School with core management from Alibaba and Ant Group, engaging with teachers and students about the impact of AI on education. Attending executives included Alibaba Group Chairman Joe Tsai, CEO Daniel Zhang, Risk Committee Chairman Shao Xiaofeng, E-commerce Business Group CEO Jiang Fan, as well as Ant Group Chairman Eric Jing and CEO Kuan Xinyi, with the management team rarely all present together. Jack Ma stated, “The AI era has arrived rapidly, and its impact on society exceeds expectations,” believing that AI offers an opportunity to return to the essence of education, “the time spent on rote memorization and practicing questions can be freed up to cultivate creativity and imagination.” Joe Tsai emphasized the importance of critical thinking, “It’s not about asking questions, but asking the right questions”; Daniel Zhang believes the core difference between humans and AI lies in curiosity, empathy, and physical strength. During the Spring Festival, Alibaba’s AI business experienced a “dual-line explosion,” with the new generation large model Qwen 3.5-Plus performing on par with CEX 3 Pro. The Qwen app ranked third globally with 203 million monthly active users, a growth rate of 552%. Alibaba has formed a “three-pronged” AI layout with Pingtouge chips, Alibaba Cloud, and Qwen models.