Inside Alibaba’s Taotian AI Team: From Werewolf Games to RecGPT
This article explores Alibaba’s Taotian technology team, revealing how its young engineers blend cutting‑edge AI research with playful projects like AI‑driven Werewolf games, develop large‑scale recommendation models such as RecGPT, and foster a culture of curiosity, rapid experimentation, and flat, tech‑first management.
Within Alibaba’s Taotian group, a youthful and highly skilled AI team is often regarded as the most mysterious and closest to cutting‑edge AI technology. The team’s members break the stereotypical "code‑monkey" image by engaging in playful yet technically sophisticated projects.
AI Werewolf Game
During the fourth "Hardcore Youth" tech festival, the team showcased AI agents powered by large language models that competed in a live Werewolf‑killer game, demonstrating AI’s ability to reason, bluff, and sometimes reveal its limitations.
Creative AI Projects
Beyond games, engineers generated an entire short animated film, "Under the Green Bow," using AI for story, storyboard, character design, and animation, and built AI versions of "Who Is the Undercover" and other hackathon prototypes.
Team Culture and Leadership
Led by Vice President Zheng Bo, a former Google engineer, the team emphasizes curiosity, equality, and hands‑on experimentation. Meetings are streamlined into Design Review (DR) and Launch Review (LR) sessions, and Wednesdays are designated "no‑meeting days" to maximize coding productivity.
The group’s demographics are striking: over 95% hold master’s or PhD degrees, 75% are from top Chinese universities, and more than half are under 30, making it one of China’s youngest and most elite AI teams.
Research and Impact
Engineers regularly read papers, publish at top conferences, and maintain a high citation count. Their work directly influences Alibaba’s core businesses, from recommendation algorithms to advertising bidding systems (AIGB), affecting millions of consumers and merchants.
Product Innovations
Taotian’s recommendation team launched RecGPT, a 100‑billion‑parameter model that predicts user needs years in advance, delivering personalized suggestions such as seasonal health products or climate‑aware recommendations.
Future Labs
The "Future Life Lab" explores large‑model and multimodal AI, despite high compute costs, reflecting a commitment to long‑term research and societal impact.
Overall, the team treats technology as a means to connect people, prioritizing fun, curiosity, and real‑world value over mere performance metrics.
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