Recently, the news that ByteDance poached Alibaba’s core talent Zhou Chang and his team at a high salary has attracted widespread attention. Zhou Chang once led Alibaba Damo Academy to develop the M6 multi-modal large model, and led the development of the "Tongyi Qianwen" large model. He is a core figure in the field of Alibaba's AI. In this job change, Zhou Chang received an eight-digit annual salary and a high-level position provided by ByteDance, and his team members also received corresponding high salaries and ranks. This incident not only reflects the scarcity and high value of AI talents, but also demonstrates the fierce competition among Internet giants in the AI field.
According to Guangzhou Daily, on December 6, the news that "ByteDance poached Alibaba's big model talents with eight-digit annual salaries" quickly triggered heated discussions on social platforms. According to reports, Alibaba's former "Tongyi Qianwen" large model technical director Zhou Chang (nick name: Zhong Huang) announced his resignation on July 18 this year to start a business. However, only two months later, there was news that Zhou Chang had already Join ByteDance in a low-key manner.
This news was confirmed by a person related to ByteDance. It is reported that Zhou Chang’s job hopping was not a one-man move. More than ten people from his team joined ByteDance with him. According to a report by China Business News, Byte offered Zhou Chang a contract that was almost irresistible: the position was at the 4-2 level, and the annual salary reached eight figures (calculated according to Alibaba’s rank system, which is equivalent to jumping two levels in a row, and the salary doubled. times). Similarly, his team members also obtained the ranks of 4-1 and 3-2, which are converted into Alibaba P10 and P9 levels.
Zhou Chang has been working at Alibaba Damo Academy since 2020, leading the team to develop a large multi-modal model called M6. With the popularity of ChatGPT in 2023, "Tongyi Qianwen" was developed based on the M6 model. Large model. Tongyi Qianwen has now become the core technology of Alibaba's Tongyi series of AI products, and Zhou Chang is known as "the person who best understands Alibaba's large models."
Zhou Chang's resignation and job-hopping will undoubtedly bring a major blow to Alibaba, especially in the context of the increasing importance of AI technology. This move not only highlights ByteDance’s ambitions in the field of artificial intelligence, but also further intensifies competition with Alibaba in the field of AI.
Zhou Chang's job-hopping incident indicates that the competition for AI talents will intensify. Major companies need to pay more attention to talent training and retention in order to occupy a favorable position in the future AI competition. Although high-paying poaching can improve strength in the short term, in the long run, it needs to focus more on a virtuous cycle of technological innovation and talent cultivation.