Kai-Fu Lee (; born December 3, 1961) is a

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan (Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, r ...

computer scientist, businessman, and writer. He is currently based in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. Lee developed a speaker-independent, continuous

speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the ...

system as his Ph.D. thesis at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

. He later worked as an executive, first at

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...

, then SGI,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

, and

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

. He became the focus of a 2005 legal dispute between

and

, his former employer, due to a one-year non-compete agreement that he signed with Microsoft in 2000 when he became its corporate vice president of interactive services. One of the most prominent figures in the Chinese internet sector, he was the founding director of Microsoft Research Asia, serving from 1998 to 2000; and president of Google China, serving from July 2005 through September 4, 2009. After resigning from his post, he founded Sinovation Ventures, a

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which h ...

firm. He created a website, () dedicated to helping young Chinese people achieve in their studies and careers, and his "10 Letters to Chinese College Students" have spread widely on the web. He is one of the most followed micro-bloggers in China, in particular on

Sina Weibo Sina Weibo (新浪微博) is a Chinese microblogging (weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily ac ...

, where he has over 50 million followers. In his 2018 book '' AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order'', Lee describes how China is rapidly moving forward to become the global leader in AI, and may well surpass the United States, because of China's demographics and its amassing of huge data sets. In a 28 September 2018 interview on the PBS '' Amanpour'' program, he stated that

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

, with all its capabilities, will never be capable of

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed lit ...

empathy Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, co ...

Background

Lee was born in

Taipei, Taiwan Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

. He is the son of Li Tianmin, a legislator and historian from

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of t ...

. Lee has detailed his personal life and career history in his autobiography in both Chinese and English, ''Making a World of Difference'', published in October 2011.

Career

Education

In 1973, Lee immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and attended high school in Oak Ridge,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

. He graduated ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'' from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, earning a B.S. degree in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

in 1983. He was a classmate of

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

at Columbia. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in computer science from

in 1988.

Academic research

At Carnegie Mellon, Lee worked on topics in machine learning and pattern recognition. In 1986, he and Sanjoy Mahajan developed ''Bill'', a Bayesian learning-based system for playing the board game

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cyp ...

that won the US national tournament of computer players in 1989. In 1988, he completed his doctoral dissertation on

Sphinx A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...

, which he claims is the first large-vocabulary, speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition system. Lee has written two books on

and more than 60 papers in computer science. His doctoral dissertation was published in 1988 as a Kluwer monograph, ''Automatic Speech Recognition: The Development of the Sphinx Recognition System'' (). Together with Alex Waibel, another Carnegie Mellon researcher, Lee edited ''Readings in Speech Recognition'' (1990, ).

Apple, Silicon Graphics, and Microsoft

After two years as a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon, Lee joined

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

in 1990 as a principal research scientist. While at Apple (1990–1996), he headed R&D groups responsible for

Apple Bandai Pippin The Apple Pippin is a defunct open multimedia technology platform, designed by Apple Computer, and marketed as PiPP!N. According to Apple, Pippin was directed at the home market as "an integral part of the consumer audiovisual, stereo, and tel ...

, PlainTalk, Casper (speech interface), GalaTea (text to speech system) for Mac Computers. Lee moved to

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

in 1996 and spent a year as the Vice President of its Web Products division, and another year as president of its multimedia software division, Cosmo Software. In 1998, Lee moved to

and went to

where he played a key role in establishing the

Microsoft Research Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technolog ...

(MSR) division there. MSR China later became known as Microsoft Research Asia, regarded as one of the best computer science research labs in the world. Lee returned to the United States in 2000 and was promoted to corporate vice president of interactive services division at Microsoft from 2000 to 2005.

Move from Microsoft to Google

In July 2005, Lee left Microsoft to take a position at

. The search company agreed to compensation worth in excess of $10 million, including a $2.5 million cash 'signing bonus' and another $1.5 million cash payment after one year, a package referred to internally at

as 'unprecedented'. On July 19, 2005, Microsoft sued Google and Lee in a

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

state court over Google's hiring of its former Vice President of Interactive Services, claiming that Lee was violating his non-compete agreement by working for Google within one year of leaving the Redmond-based software corporation. Microsoft argued that Lee would inevitably disclose

proprietary information Trade secrets are a type of intellectual property that includes formulas, practices, processes, designs, instruments, patterns, or compilations of information that have inherent economic value because they are not generally known or readily asc ...

to Google if he was allowed to work there. On July 28, 2005, Washington state Superior Court Judge Steven González granted Microsoft a temporary restraining order, which prohibited Lee from working on Google projects that compete with Microsoft pending a trial scheduled for January 9, 2006. On September 13, following a hearing, Judge González issued a ruling permitting Lee to work for Google, but barring him from starting work on some technical projects until the case went to trial in January 2006. Lee was still allowed to recruit employees for Google in China and to talk to government officials about licensing, but was prohibited from working on technologies such as

search Searching or search may refer to: Computing technology * Search algorithm, including keyword search ** :Search algorithms * Search and optimization for problem solving in artificial intelligence * Search engine technology, software for find ...

. Lee was also prohibited from setting budgets, salaries, and research directions for Google in China until the case was to go to trial in January 2006. Before the case could go to trial, on December 22, 2005, Google and

announced that they had reached a settlement whose terms are confidential, ending a five-month dispute between the two companies. At Google China, Lee helped establish the company in the market and oversaw its growth in the country. Under his tenure, the Google.cn regional website was launched. He also strengthened the company's teams of engineers and scientists in the country. On September 4, 2009, Lee announced his resignation from Google. He said "With a very strong leadership team in place, it seemed a very good moment for me to move to the next chapter in my career." Alan Eustace, senior Google vice-president for engineering, credited him with "helping dramatically to improve the quality and range of services that we offer in China, and ensuring that we continue to innovate on the Web for the benefit of users and advertisers". Several months after Lee's departure, Google announced that it would stop

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

and move its

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...

servers to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

Sinovation Ventures

On September 7, 2009 he announced details of a $115m

(early-stage incubation and seed money business model) fund called "Innovation Works" (later changed to " Sinovation Ventures") that aims to create five successful Chinese

start-ups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

a year in internet and mobile internet businesses or in vast hosting services known as

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mu ...

. The Innovation Works fund has attracted several investors, including

Steve Chen Steve Chen (; born August 25, 1978) is a Taiwanese-American Internet entrepreneur who is one of the co-founders and previous chief technology officer of the video-sharing website YouTube. After having co-founded the company AVOS Systems, Inc ...

, co-founder of

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

;

Foxconn Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Hon Hai Technology Group in China and Taiwan and Foxconn internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer established in 1974 with headquarters in Tucheng, New ...

, the electronics contract manufacturer;

Legend Holdings Legend Holdings Corporation () is a Chinese investment holding company with interests in finance, real estate, and information technology, and the controlling shareholder of its better-known associate company, the Lenovo Group. Formed by the Chin ...

, the parent of PC maker

Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, business solutions, and related se ...

; and WI Harper Group. In September 2010, Lee described two Google Android projects for Chinese users: Tapas, a smartphone operating system tailored for Chinese users; and Wandoujia (SnapPea), a desktop phone manager for Android. In December 2012, Innovation Works announced that it had closed a second US$275 million fund. In September 2016, the company announced its corporate name change from Innovation Works to "Sinovation Ventures," closing US$674 million (4.5 billion Chinese yuan) capital injection. Total fund size of Sinovation Ventures exceed US$1 billion. In April 2018, Sinovation Ventures announced its US dollar Fund IV of $500 million. To date, Sinovation Ventures' total asset under management with its dual currency reaches US$2 billion and has invested over 300 portfolios primarily in China.

Previous positions

* Vice President,

; President, Google Greater China, July 2005–September 4, 2009 * Corporate Vice President, Natural Interactive Services Division (NISD), Microsoft Corp. 2000–July 2005 * Founder & Managing Director, Microsoft Research Asia, China, 1998–2000 * President, Cosmo Software, Multimedia software business unit of

Inc. (SGI), 1999–2000 * Vice President & General Manager, Web Products, Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), 1998–1999 * Vice President, Interactive Media Group,

, 1997–1998 * Director, Interactive Media, Advanced Technology Group, Apple Computer, 1994–1997 * Manager, Speech & Language Technologies Group, Apple Computer, 1991–1994 * Principal Speech Scientist, Apple Computer, 1990–1991 * Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, July 1990 * Research Computer Scientist, Carnegie Mellon University, 1988–1990

Education

* Ph.D. in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

, 1988 * B.S. in

, 1983

Recognition

* Chairman

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

's Global AI Council * Asia House Asian Business Leader 2018 * Fellow,

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...

(inducted 2002) * Member, Committee of 100 * ''Time'' 100, 2013 * Honorary Doctorate Degree, Carnegie Mellon University * Honorary Doctorate Degree, City University of Hong Kong

Publications

* * ''Be Your Personal Best'' (《做最好的自己》, published September 2005, People's Publishing House) * ''Making A World of Difference - Kai-Fu Lee Biography'' (《世界因你而不同》, published September 2009, China CITIC Press) * ''Seeing Life Through Death'' (《向死而生》, published July 2015, by China CITIC Press) * ''A Walk Into The Future'' (《与未来同行》, published October 2006, People's Publishing House) * ''To Student With Love'' (《一往情深》, published October 2007, People's Publishing House) * ''Weibo Changing Everything'' (《微博改变一切》, published February 2011, Beijing Xiron Books Co., Ltd) * ''Artificial Intelligence'' (《人工智能》, published May 2017, Beijing Xiron Books Co., Ltd) * ''AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future'' (with Chen Qiufan.《AI 2041：預見10個未來新世界》, published June 2021, Taiwan Commonwealth Publishing Co., Ltd)

Controversies

Lee was barred from Weibo for three days after he used Weibo to complain about China's Internet controls. A February 16, 2013, post summarized a ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' article about how slow speeds and instability deter overseas businesses from locating critical functions in China. In January 2013, he also posted support for staff of a Guangzhou-based newspaper during a standoff with government censors. He was also a vocal critic of the government's blocking of

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, cont ...

, which he said was detrimental to China's competitiveness.

Personal life

Lee posted on Weibo on 5 September 2013 that he had been diagnosed with

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include en ...

. In December 2018, Lee spoke at the End Well Symposium on end of life in San Francisco, stating: “I was a maniacal workaholic. That workaholism ended abruptly about five years ago, when I was diagnosed with Stage IV lymphoma.”

References

External links

Profile at Sinovation Ventures

''Making a World of Difference''
– 2011 autobiography (English) *

Interviews

BBC Interview of the Week: Kai-Fu Lee (2018)

"Kai-Fu Lee on the Future of AI"
2019 TED Interview
"Kai-Fu Lee: AI Superpowers – China and Silicon Valley"
2019 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Podcast {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Kai-Fu 1961 births Living people 21st-century American non-fiction writers American bloggers American people of Taiwanese descent American computer businesspeople American computer scientists American expatriates in China American technology chief executives American technology writers Businesspeople from Taipei Businesspeople from Tennessee Businesspeople in information technology Carnegie Mellon University alumni Carnegie Mellon University faculty Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Fellow Members of the IEEE Members of Committee of 100 Microsoft employees Microsoft Research people People from Oak Ridge, Tennessee Speech processing researchers Taiwanese bloggers Taiwanese computer scientists Taiwanese emigrants to the United States Writers from Tennessee Columbia College (New York) alumni