Kai-fu Lee
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Valued at $1B, Kai-Fu Lee’s LLM startup unveils open source model
Kai-Fu Lee, the computer scientist known in the West for his bestseller “AI Superpowers” and in China for his bets on artificial intelligence unicorns, has a new venture — and a great ambition. In late March, Lee launched a company called 01.AI with the vision to develop a homegrown large language…
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What’s driving China’s autonomous vehicle frenzy?
China’s autonomous vehicle industry saw a period of unprecedented acceleration in 2021, with over $8.5 billion invested in robotaxi startups, self-driving truck developers and equipment makers.
What Kai-Fu Lee-backed AInnovation tells us about China’s smart manufacturing
The enthusiasm to find paying customers for artificial intelligence continues in China. AInnovation, a Chinese computer vision and machine learning startup backed by Kai-Fu Lee’s Sinovation Ventures and SoftBank, is…
Two weeks ago, 50 founders and investors shared their insights on how the world can tackle the planetary “Code Red” with over 2,000 participants at the inaugural SOSV Climate Tech…
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AI luminary Kai-Fu Lee and sci-fi author Chen Qiufan predict the future in ‘AI 2041’
What will an AI-infused world look like in 20 years? Sinovation founder and AI thought leader Kai-Fu Lee and breakout sci-fi author Chen Qiufan (aka Stanley Chen) make an educated guess in “AI 2041.”
Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan will share their vision of our AI-powered future at Disrupt
We’ve had visionary investors onstage before, and we’ve had science fiction authors onstage — but never at the same time, let alone a pair who collaborated on a unique book…
China roundup: Kai-Fu Lee’s first Europe bet, WeRide buys a truck startup
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China Roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. Despite…
Kai-Fu Lee’s Sinovation bets on Linux tablet maker Jingling in $10M round
Kai-Fu Lee’s Sinovation Ventures has its eyes on a niche market targeting software developers. In April, the venture capital fund led a $10 million angel round in Jingling, a Chinese…
Sight Tech Global is live! Join top AI technologists and accessibility innovators to discuss the future of assistive tech
Today and tomorrow, from 8 a.m. PST to 12:30 p.m. PST the first annual, virtual event Sight Tech Global is streaming on TechCrunch. The event looks at how AI-based technologies…
The goal of Sight Tech Global, a virtual, global event on December 2-3, 2020, is to gather the world’s top experts who are applying advanced technologies, notably AI, to the…
Alibaba-backed facial recognition startup Megvii raises $750 million
One of China’s most ambitious artificial intelligence startups, Megvii, more commonly known for its facial recognition brand Face++, announced Wednesday that it has raised $750 million in a Series D…
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Can there be too much competition between startups?
Competition is the core of capitalism. Competition between companies lowers prices — on average — and ensures that they are forced to innovate lest they lose their markets to others. Competition between workers ensures that people strive to do their best work lest their jobs go to more qualified or…
World Economic Forum warns of AI’s potential to worsen global inequality
Tech and political leaders sounded the alarm bell today about the potential for artificial intelligence to exacerbate huge inequalities across the world. The mood music coming out of the World…
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5 takeaways on the state of AI from Disrupt SF
The promise of artificial intelligence is immense, but the roadmap to achieving those goals still remains unclear. Onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt SF, some of AI’s leading minds shared their thoughts on current competition in the market, how to ensure algorithms don’t perpetuate racism and the future of human-machine interaction. Here…
Playing the global game, Sequoia can cut checks for up to $1 billion
As the shadow of SoftBank (and its $100 billion fund) looms large over the investment landscape, Sequoia Capital is pushing the upper limits of the checks it’s willing to write…
China is beating the US on AI, says noted investor Kai-Fu Lee
America may have created AI, but China is taking the ball and running when it comes to one of the world’s most pivotal technology innovations. That’s according to Kai-Fu Lee,…
TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018 dives deep into artificial intelligence and machine learning
As fields of research, machine learning and artificial intelligence both date back to the 50s. More than half a century later, the disciplines have graduated from the theoretical to practical,…
The five best reasons you don’t want to miss Disrupt SF this September
TechCrunch’s Disrupt SF (Sept. 5-7) is our most ambitious event ever. And if we’re sure of one thing, it’s that people in the startup scene will extract more insights and…
Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is coming to Disrupt SF to talk about how AI will eat everything, especially jobs
At our upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt SF (September 5-7), TechCrunch committed to go deep on artificial intelligence, and we’re pleased to announce a speaker who has few peers in that realm…
Is America’s national security Facebook and Google’s problem?
Outrage that Facebook made the private data of over 87 million of its U.S. users available to the Trump campaign has stoked fears of big US-based technology companies are tracking…
Sinovation Ventures’ Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is betting big on artificial intelligence
Given that Sinovation Ventures founder Dr. Kai-Fu Lee has around 50 million followers on Chinese social networks, he has become an oracle when it comes to predicting the future of…
Top Videos From TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing (TCTV)
The sun has set on our first ever TechCrunch Disrupt conference outside U.S. soil. The Beijing event ended this past Tuesday, as OrderWithMe won the Disrupt Cup. With the 12…
Impressive List Of U.S. Investors Drops $180 Million Into Chinese Startup Incubator
Kai-Fu Lee has a fairly unique perspective on the tech industry, having spent years in high roles at Apple, Microsoft, and Google. Lee spent six years as VP of Apple’s…
Is Google’s Mobile Loss in China Kai-fu Lee’s Gain?
Former head of Google China, Kai-fu Lee, insists—insists—that he is not happy that Google imploded its business in China. “Seeing the work that I put in, how could I be…
What Has Kai-fu Lee Done Since October?
I visited Kai-fu Lee’s Innovation Works while I was in Beijing last week to see how things are going. When I last visited the ex-Google China CEO’s incubator, it was…