Has the 'lobster craze' cooled off?

Alibaba pushes on with a bigger Qwen

Alibaba (阿里巴巴) this week went ahead where many expected the China AI scene to slow. It has been reported that the company launched Qwen3.6-Max-Preview — an early preview of its next‑generation flagship model — available for interactive use in Qwen Studio and soon callable via Alibaba Cloud (阿里云) Bailian API under the name qwen3.6-max-preview. The company says the preview boosts "world knowledge" and instruction‑following, and markedly improves agent‑programming performance on multiple benchmarks.

What’s new, and what’s still unproven

Compared with Qwen3.6-Plus, Qwen3.6-Max-Preview reportedly delivers stronger agent programming capabilities, better real‑world agent behavior and improved knowledge reliability. As a preview release, the model remains under active iteration and Alibaba warns upgrades will continue. Independent verification of benchmark gains is limited; it has been reported that the company’s claims are based on internal testing rather than third‑party audits.

Bigger picture: competition, robots and credibility

Why does this matter beyond product updates? Because China’s AI progress is being watched through a geopolitical lens. CNN recently covered a Chinese humanoid robot half‑marathon, reporting that a champion robot beat the human half‑marathon record and suggesting China is taking a large step in tech rivalry with the U.S. Whether in large language models or bipedal robots, firms are trying to convert laboratory hype into reliable, deployable systems — and governments are watching closely, shaping sanctions and trade policy in response.

So has the hype cooled?

Short answer: not yet. The "lobster craze" — the rapid-fire investor and public fascination with whatever the next hot AI toy is — may ebb in headlines, but product iterations and competitive signaling continue unabated. Watch for independent benchmarks, API rollouts, and real‑world deployments; those will tell us whether the preview is another round of marketing or a substantive step forward.