Qwen’s Former Lead on What Hybrid Thinking Got Wrong — and Why He Now Backs Agents
Junyang Lin was the technical lead of Alibaba’s Qwen project. He announced he was stepping down on March 3, 2026. He now lists himself as an independent researcher on his personal site. In a talk titled ‘Qwen: Towards a Generalist Model / Agent,‘ he walks through the Qwen family. It ends on a single line: “Training models -> training agents.” He later expanded that line into an detailed post as an independent researcher. This article reads the talk and the detai
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Junyang Lin, former technical lead of Alibaba's Qwen project, has shifted focus from reasoning-focused AI models to agent-based systems. He distinguishes between two approaches: reasoning thinking, which produces lengthy internal deliberation before answering, and agentic thinking, which involves models that plan, act, use tools, and adapt based on environmental feedback in real-time. The agentic approach requires different training infrastructure, reward signals, and handling of challenges like noisy observations and multi-turn tool use that pure reasoning models can avoid. This represents a broader shift in how AI systems should be optimized, moving from maximizing internal deliberation quality to sustaining progress through interactive problem-solving.
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