Kai-Fu Lee

Kai-Fu Lee is the chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and president of Sinovation Ventures Artificial Intelligence Institute. Sinovation Ventures, which manages $2.5 billion in dual currency investment funds, is a venture capital firm focused on developing Chinese high-tech companies. Lee is also the founder and CEO of 01.AI, an artificial intelligence startup specializing in large language models that achieved unicorn status shortly after its launch, with a mission to make advanced AI accessible to a broader audience. Before founding Sinovation Ventures, Lee served as president of Google China and held senior executive roles at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple.

In the field of artificial intelligence, Lee developed one of the first game-playing programs to defeat a world champion in Othello and created the first large vocabulary, speaker-independent continuous speech recognition system. He established Microsoft Research China, later known as Microsoft Research Asia, which was recognized by MIT Technology Review. At Apple, Lee led AI projects in speech and natural language processing, which were featured on Good Morning America on ABC Television and the front page of Wall Street Journal. He holds 10 U.S. patents and has published more than 100 journal and conference papers. Lee has contributed to artificial intelligence research, development, and investment for more than 30 years.

Lee is the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order," which examines U.S.-China co-leadership in the era of artificial intelligence and the societal impacts of AI technology. He also co-authored "AI 2041," a book exploring how artificial intelligence may shape the world in the coming decades.

Lee earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Columbia University and a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as honorary doctorates from Carnegie Mellon and City University of Hong Kong. He serves as co-chair of the Artificial Intelligence Council for World Economic Forum Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and has been recognized by TIME and WIRED for his influence in artificial intelligence. Lee has a social media following of more than 50 million.