Resignation setback for Baidu's artificial intelligence push

BEIJING - The chief scientist helping drive Baidu Inc's artificial intelligence push is quitting the search giant, putting at risk its efforts to place the sector at the center of its business revival.

Andrew Ng, a Stanford University academic who worked on deep learning at Google Inc's parent company Alphabet Inc before joining Baidu in 2014, said he's leaving the business next month.

Ng said he does not plan to join another technology company and will seek to bring AI into sectors such as healthcare and education around the world.

The departure comes at a crucial point for the Beijing-based company, as it attempts to revive its fortunes by embracing machine intelligence across all of its business units. His decision to leave comes after Lu Qi joined Baidu as president and chief operating officer in January, with a mandate to reshape the business.

"It's all very amicable," Ng said, adding that he had discussed the move with Baidu's co-founder Robin Li for several months. "I'm very confident the team will survive. In China, Baidu is so far ahead and AI is not easy."

Ng said he does not expect his departure to derail or slow down Baidu's AI efforts, pointing out that he's still chief scientist until the handover at the end of April.

Ng oversaw the growth of Baidu's research team to 1,300 people scattered across research labs in Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai, and Sunnyvale, California. The group will increase by several hundred more this year, he has said.

Ng is a founding father of deep learning - a stream of AI recently popularized by tech giants around the world - and the public face of Baidu's AI efforts.

"Baidu is restructuring its business with emphasis on AI after appointing Lu Qi as its president and chief operating officer, and planning to apply AI technologies to more sectors, including self-driving, medical treatment and service robots," said Zhao Ziming, an analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Analysys.

Zhao added Ng's resignation will not have a big effect on the company, because it has kept one step ahead of its domestic rivals in developing and investing in AI technologies.

"With him there, investors and analysts got more confidence about Baidu's AI investments since he is quite well-known in the field," said Marie Sun, an analyst with Morningstar Investment Services. "If there's no other well-known person from his field replacing his role, I think it could be negative news to the market."

Bloomberg - China Daily