Tencent Holdings has launched a major reorganization of its artificial intelligence team, with the recent promotion of high-profile new hire Vince Yao Shunyu, a former OpenAI researcher.
Shenzhen-based Tencent did not mention his Chinese name in a statement on Wednesday but included a photo of Yao Ming. He will be tasked with leading the company’s new artificial intelligence infrastructure efforts, including the development of large language models (LLMs).
Yao Ming’s official position is chief artificial intelligence scientist in Tencent’s CEO office, reporting directly to President Liu Chiping.
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As part of Tencent’s artificial intelligence reorganization, the Technology Engineering Group (TEG), one of the company’s six major business units, has established two new departments.
Three sources confirmed that the “AI Infrastructure” department is “responsible for developing technical capabilities for large model training and inference platforms,” while the “Data Computing Platform” team is tasked with “building comprehensive full-stack service capabilities that integrate big data and machine learning at large scale.”
Yao was also appointed as the head of TEG’s LL.M. development and artificial intelligence foundation departments, reporting to group president Lu Shan.
The company renamed its existing data platform team “AI Data” and is responsible for “providing high-quality data services for large-scale model pre-training, post-training and model application.”
At the same time, the Machine Learning Platforms division was disbanded and its members reassigned to the new Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure and Data Computing Platforms divisions.
Former OpenAI researcher Vinces Yao Shunyu now serves as chief artificial intelligence scientist, leading Tencent Holdings’ artificial intelligence efforts. Photo: Handout alt=Former OpenAI researcher Vinces Yao Shunyu now serves as Tencent Holdings’ chief artificial intelligence scientist, responsible for leading Tencent Holdings’ artificial intelligence efforts. Photo: Handout >
A Tencent representative said the company does not comment on internal announcements.
Tencent’s latest reorganization highlights fierce competition in China’s fast-growing artificial intelligence sector, as internet peer Alibaba Group Holding continues to shake up operations of the company’s artificial intelligence and cloud computing unit Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Alibaba Cloud said last week it was setting up a new unit to drive consumer adoption of artificial intelligence applications based on the Qwen series of models. The new business unit Qwen Consumer Business Group is led by Alibaba Vice President Wu Jia.
Meanwhile, Yao Ming has been helping Tencent recruit new mainland artificial intelligence talents from companies such as ByteDance and Alibaba, according to a report from 36Kr on Wednesday that broke the news of Tencent’s artificial intelligence reorganization.
According to 36Kr, Yao graduated from Princeton University and Tsinghua University and is a core contributor to OpenAI’s first batch of AI agent operators and Deep Research.
During the company’s latest quarterly earnings call last month, Tencent’s Liu said the company was hiring more top AI researchers to help improve its line of hybrid models.
This year, Tencent has open sourced more than 30 new AI models, including multiple industry-leading 3D generation models and systems that simulate the physical world.
Additional reporting by Iris Deng
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