Alibaba Qwen’s Liu Da Yiheng: Open Source to Bring AI to All

Liu's framing of an "Agent era" positions open-weight models as infrastructure rather than premium products, a direct challenge to closed-model economics where capability is monetised behind APIs. The claim that AI should be a "basic capability" aligns Alibaba's Qwen with a commoditisation strategy — giving away model access to capture developer mindshare and downstream cloud demand. What matters for RWA and crypto builders is whether open agents lower the cost of automating on-chain and real-world asset workflows. Whether Qwen's openness extends to genuinely permissive licensing, rather than open weights with commercial limits, is the open question.