Wang Huiwen returns and takes on the role of the "Team Leader" of Meituan's AI. | Exclusive from 36Kr.

Author | Deng Yongyi

Editor | Su Jianxun

"Intelligent Emergence" has exclusively learned from multiple independent sources that Wang Huiwen, the former co-founder of Meituan and the founder of Light Year Beyond, has now returned and is leading a team at Meituan to explore AI applications.

The Meituan AI team where Wang Huiwen is located is called GN06. The publicly available recruitment requirements show that the current main business directions of GN06 include emotional companionship, chatbots, etc. The team provides candidates with "boundless AI experimentation opportunities". Product and operational roles are interviewed and vetted by Wang Huiwen.

A person close to Meituan told "Intelligent Emergence" that GN06 is directly managed by Wang Huiwen and does not belong to any business group. In addition, GN06 is relatively independent within Meituan, focusing on exploring directions outside the main business, and is also independent from Meituan's existing large model team and AI teams in various business lines.

One of the main products of GN06 is the AI emotional companion product Wow, which was launched in November 2023. Wow is Meituan's first independent product in the AI application track. Users can freely customize the character image, personality, and voice, and interact in the AI community.

△ Wow App Interface Source: Wow Official Website

Another informed person told "Intelligent Emergence" that since this summer, the recruitment needs of GN06 have increased significantly and rapidly. However, now Wow is focusing on going global and betting on the North American market.

This is also confirmed by the recruitment needs - the current job positions of GN06 cover front-end, client-side, back-end, product, operation, business analysis, etc. Many positions require knowledge and work experience in overseas AI products.

Recently, Meituan has been quite active in AI applications. At the end of October, a new AI application "Miao Shu" was just launched. This is an AI image generation application - users can select the image templates they are interested in on the platform, such as Minions, Cube World, various IP dolls, etc., and then upload human images or object images to generate a new AI image.

△ Miao Shu Mini Program

Meituan's exploration and interest in generative AI began when ChatGPT exploded in 2023.

In 2023, Wang Huiwen founded "Light Year Beyond", and he was also one of the first top Internet talents in China to announce entering the field of entrepreneurship in the large model domain. At that time, Wang Xing, the founder of Meituan, immediately announced his personal participation in the Series A investment and served as a director.

"Light Year Beyond" completed a $230 million Series A financing within just two months. The investors included ZhenFund, Source Code Capital, and Sequoia Capital, and quickly completed the acquisition of the AI Infra company "Oneflow" to quickly assemble a team of more than 70 people.

But shortly after, due to health reasons, Wang Huiwen announced his leave for medical treatment and recuperation, and he resigned from his positions as a non-executive director of Meituan, etc. In June 2023, "Light Year Beyond" was acquired by Meituan for 2.065 billion yuan, and came to an end. After the original "Light Year Beyond" team was acquired, it has been in a low-key state, exploring large models within Meituan.

However, Wang Huiwen has continuously maintained contact with the AI field and gradually made a comeback. In August 2023, Yuan Jinhui, the co-founder of the original Oneflow and Light Year Beyond, announced the re-establishment of a new company "Silicon-Based Flow", and Wang Huiwen also served as a company advisor and participated in the business and the angel round financing of Silicon-Based Flow.

In April of this year, Meituan CEO Wang Xing sent an internal email stating that Wang Huiwen is gradually recovering his health and will serve as a Meituan advisor for part of his time.

Now leading GN06 can be seen as a signal of Wang Huiwen's official return to the AI business.

In 2023, Wang Huiwen was the first top Internet talent to "raise his arms and call out", announcing his entry into entrepreneurship, quickly stirring up a storm in the Chinese large model field.

Since then, the Chinese large model circle has experienced a tumultuous year, forming a pattern of large companies and the "Six Tigers of Large Models" (Zhipu, MiniMax, Dark Side of the Moon, Baichuan Intelligence, 01World, and StepStar). By 2024, the entrepreneurial theme in the AI circle has evolved from "becoming the Chinese version of OpenAI" to finding the "next-generation super application".

"Such a great thing, it is shameful not to participate." At the beginning of his announcement to enter entrepreneurship in 2023, Wang Huiwen once said in our interview that compared to combat-type businesses, he is more inclined to explore and create freely.

Perhaps now is the right time. This entrepreneur who "passionately believes that AI will change the world and is determined to ensure that AI benefits humanity" is finally about to end his intermission and return to the battlefield in another way.