AI whiz Andrew Ng quits Baidu

Andrew Ng giving a presentation at Stanford in February 2017. Screengrab from Stanford video.

Andrew Ng, chief scientist at Chinese search giant Baidu, today announced his resignation.

Hired in 2014, Andrew joined Baidu to oversee its research initiatives in artificial intelligence, especially work in speech recognition. During his tenure, the Chinese tech giant opened research centers for deep learning, big data research, AI, and more recently, augmented reality.

Before Baidu, Andrew founded Google Brain, Google’s deep learning research project that famously built a neural network that can recognize cats. He’s also the co-founder of education platform Coursera and is an adjunct professor of deep learning at Stanford University.

“Baidu’s AI is incredibly strong, and the team is stacked up and down with talent; I am confident AI at Baidu will continue to flourish,” wrote Ng. “After Baidu, I am excited to continue working toward the AI transformation of our society and the use of AI to make life better for everyone.”

Big blow to Baidu

His resignation will be a big loss for Baidu. The company poured US$430 million into research and development in the final three months of last year – a 19.5 percent increase from last year – which encompasses its initiatives in AI.

“Andrew joined Baidu because of our shared pursuit for the future of AI,” stated Baidu on its official Weibo account, China’s answer to Twitter. “We still have this goal, which is to push forward the development of AI and make life in the future more beautiful.”

“Despite our regrets, we send our thanks and blessings! We wish Andrew even greater success in the future, and hope all goes well!”

Baidu’s Silicon Valley AI Lab is based in Sunnyvale, California. Photo credit: Tech in Asia.

Baidu has also been ramping up its investments in AI startups, such as voice-assistant startup Raven Tech, which it acquired this year. In February, Baidu announced plans to help the Chinese government build a national AI lab.

Andrew’s reputation drew other talented AI researchers to Baidu. Adam Coates, director of Baidu’s Silicon Valley AI Lab, met Andrew when he was a junior at Stanford studying computer science. It was after working with Andrew that he decided to focus on deep learning.

“I started working with [Ng] on helicopters and discovered AI and machine learning technologies,” Adam told Tech in Asia in February. “That got me excited about machine learning. This is sort of the next big thing: there are programs I do not know how to write, but I can create a piece of software that solves that on its own.”

See: Making ‘Her’ a reality: how Baidu’s AI Lab plans to solve speech recognition