Alibaba Group Holding has bolstered its AI team with the recent addition of Steven Hoi Chu-hong, an expert in machine learning and computer vision. Formerly the managing director of Salesforce Research Asia, Hoi joined Alibaba as a vice-president last month. Based in Singapore, he is now part of the Intelligent Information Platform, overseeing AI-driven consumer products such as Alibaba’s chatbot, UC Browser, and search engine Quark.
Hoi will lead the research and development of multimodal foundation models, agent-related studies, and applied AI solutions for consumer applications. His appointment follows Alibaba’s recent restructuring of its AI operations into two divisions—one focused on enterprise AI models and developer tools, and the other on consumer-facing AI applications.
The move highlights the growing demand for AI talent among China’s tech giants, as competition for experts intensifies. Despite a surge in AI job openings, the industry faces a shortage of qualified professionals, according to Maimai, China’s version of LinkedIn.
Before joining Alibaba, Hoi founded the applied AI research firm HyperGAI in Singapore in 2023. Between 2019 and 2022, he led Salesforce Research Asia’s AI initiatives across the Asia-Pacific region. His extensive academic career includes positions as a professor of information systems at Singapore Management University (2014–2022) and a faculty member at Nanyang Technological University (2007–2013). He earned his PhD in computer science and engineering from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2006 and completed his bachelor’s degree at Tsinghua University in 2002.
A recognized leader in AI, Hoi became a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2019 for his contributions to machine learning in multimedia information retrieval and scalable data analytics. He has also contributed to AI research on large language models (LLMs) and reinforcement learning (RL), highlighting similarities between his previous work at Salesforce and recent developments by DeepSeek.
Alibaba’s AI strategy is gaining traction, particularly in consumer applications. The company recently rebranded its search app Quark as an AI-powered assistant for its 200 million users. According to analytics firm Qimai, Quark recorded 370 million downloads in 2024. Meanwhile, Alibaba’s latest Qwen 2.5-Max model has reportedly outperformed DeepSeek-V3 in key benchmark tests.
As Alibaba continues to refine its AI ecosystem, Hoi’s expertise is expected to play a pivotal role in advancing its consumer-facing AI capabilities and reinforcing its position in the global AI landscape.
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