Alibaba chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang expressed his belief that cloud computing and artificial intelligence will bring about significant societal changes in a speech at the Nishan Dialogue on Digital Civilization in Qufu city. Zhang’s belief in this transformative potential is the reason behind his decision to continue leading the company’s cloud business, even as he steps down from his broader leadership role at Alibaba Group this September. The conference saw the participation of chief executives from Baidu and cybersecurity firm 360, who also delivered speeches on the subject. Addressing AI-related regulatory and safety concerns, all three tech leaders emphasized their shared commitment to constructing secure, controlled, and user-friendly AI models, with 360’s CEO Zhou Hongyi referring to them as “three old friends” in his social media post. [Yicai, in Chinese]