Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who hasn’t been seen in public in three years, has resurfaced at a school in Hangzhou, according to a report.

Since criticizing China’s financial regulators in 2020, the 58-year-old has kept a low profile.

Mr Ma was the most well-known Chinese billionaire to vanish amid a crackdown on tech entrepreneurs.

According to the South China Morning Post, he recently returned to China after spending more than a year abroad.

Mr Ma, a former English teacher, met with staff and toured classrooms at Hangzhou’s Yungu School, where Alibaba is headquartered.

According to the school’s social media page, he discussed the potential challenges of artificial intelligence in education.

“ChatGPT and similar technologies are only at the start of the AI era. Instead of being controlled by artificial intelligence, we should use it to solve problems “He stated.

Mr Ma, once China’s richest man, relinquished control of financial technology behemoth Ant Group in January of this year.

Some commentators saw it as further proof that he had enraged the Chinese Communist Party by becoming too outspoken and powerful.

Mr Ma stated at a financial conference in October 2020 that traditional banks have a “pawn-shop mentality.”

The following month, Chinese authorities cancelled Ant’s planned £26 billion stock market flotation, which would have been the world’s largest, citing “major issues” with the firm’s regulation.

Since then, sightings of him have been reported in a number of countries, including Spain, the Netherlands, Thailand, and Australia.

The Financial Times reported in November that Mr Ma had been living in Tokyo, Japan, for six months.

When Mr Ma first stopped appearing in public, it was rumored that he had been placed under house arrest or otherwise detained.