According to a report, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who has been spotted in public only very infrequently in the past three years, recently reemerged at a school in the city of Hangzhou.
Since he voiced his criticism of China’s financial regulators in the year 2020, the 58-year-old has maintained a low profile.
The disappearance of Mr. Ma was the most high-profile case of a Chinese billionaire in the midst of a crackdown on technology entrepreneurs.
According to the South China Morning Post, he has just recently returned to China after spending more than a year away from the country.
According to a tabloid that is owned by Alibaba, he made a quick layover in Hong Kong. While there, he reportedly chatted with friends and also spent some time at Art Basel, an international art fair.
It was added that Mr. Ma has been traveling to various countries to learn about agricultural technology, but it did not make any reference as to why the public had not seen him in recent years.
Mr. Ma, who had previously worked as an English instructor, visited the Yungu School in Hangzhou, the city that is home to Alibaba’s headquarters, and met with faculty and inspected classes there.
According to the social media page for the school, he spoke about the opportunities and threats that could be posed by artificial intelligence to the educational system.
“The AI era is just getting started, and ChatGPT and other technologies like it are just the beginning. Instead of allowing artificial intelligence to take control of our lives, we should focus on using it to solve problems “he said.
Mr. Ma, who was formerly the wealthiest person in China, handed over control of the massive financial technology company Ant Group in January of this year.
Some commentators interpreted this as further evidence that he had gotten into trouble with the Chinese Communist Party due to the fact that he had become too powerful and too outspoken.
At a symposium on finance held in October 2020, Mr. Ma stated that traditional banks had the “mentality of a pawn shop.”
The following month, Chinese regulators abruptly called off Ant’s planned stock market IPO, which was estimated to be worth £26 billion and would have been the largest in the world. They cited “serious difficulties” with the company’s regulation as the reason for their decision.
Since that time, there have reportedly been sightings of him in a number of different nations, including Spain, the Netherlands, Thailand, and Australia, among others.
It was reported in November of the previous year by the journal Financial Times that Mr. Ma had been residing in Tokyo, Japan, for the previous half year.
When Mr. Ma initially stopped making appearances in public, there were rumors that he had been placed under house arrest or had been jailed in some other manner.
