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Hard work and endurance: what Alibaba’s team-building says about its AI drive

Jack Ma and executives plant rice seedlings in a symbolic retreat signalling resilience as Alibaba doubles down on AI

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Jack Ma and Alibaba executives gather at the rice-planting team-building event. Photo: Handout
Xinmei Shen
An Alibaba Group Holding executive has urged hard work and endurance in an internal blog post after founder Jack Ma Yun and top executives gathered for a rice-planting team-building event, as the Chinese tech giant sharpens its artificial intelligence strategies.

“The laws of the fields are very simple: when the season arrives, you must plant when it’s time to plant, and endure when it’s time to endure,” Liu Zhenfei, Alibaba partner and chairman of mapping service Amap, wrote in an article published on Alibaba’s intranet on Monday, according to Chinese news outlets.

Liu’s post referred to a recent activity in Hangzhou, in China’s eastern Zhejiang province, where Ma joined executives including CEO Eddie Wu Yongming, chief technology officer Wu Zeming and chief scientist Zhou Jingren to plant rice seedlings.

“A dozen or so of us worked all morning, yet we only managed to plant half an acre of paddy field crookedly,” Liu wrote.

But he also struck a positive note, saying: “As long as you tend to the soil, choose the right seedlings, and do every little thing with care, just leave the rest to time. The land will never let you down.”

Other attendees included Alibaba’s E-commerce Business Group CEO Jiang Fan, chief people officer Jane Fang Jiang, Ant Group chairman Eric Xiandong Jing and CEO Cyril Xinyi Han.

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