(Yicai Global) March 27 -- Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma today popped up at a school he set up in Hangzhou, the e-commerce giant’s home town, after recently returning to China after a lengthy absence.

Ma visited and spoke with managers about “challenges and opportunities from a new round of technological change,” Yungu School said on its WeChat account.

The latest ChatGPT technologies have been a disturbing force in education but they are just the beginning of the artificial intelligence era, Ma said, adding that humans should use AI to solve problems rather than being controlled by AI.

“Knowledge is the driving force and source of competitiveness in the industrial age,” he said. “The digital era is driven by intelligence, and competition in the era relies on creativity, imagination, leadership, responsibility, and independent thinking.”

Yicai Global asked Alibaba about Ma’s visit to the school, but the firm had not replied as of press time.

Ma has been living abroad for more than a year, according to the South China Morning Post, following controversy over his criticism of China’s financial regulators in 2020.

Editor: Tom Litting