Kai-Fu Lee Keynote Speaker

Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is a a venture capitalist, technology executive, writer, and an artificial intelligence expert. The Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and President of Sinovation Venture’s Artificial Intelligence Institute, Dr. Lee was the Vice President of Google, President of Google China and previously held executive positions at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple.  In 2023, he founded a  new AI startup to build ChatGPT-like apps for China.

A prolific author, Dr. Lee has published ten books to date: “Artificial Intelligence” 2017, “Seeing Life Through Death” 2015, “Weibo Changing Everything” 2011, “Making A World of Difference 2009″, “To Student With Love” 2007, “A Walk Into The Future”  2006 and “Be Your Personal Best” 2005. His book, “AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order” 2018, has become a New Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller.  His most recent book is ‘AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future‘

Graduating from Columbia University summa cum laude, Dr. Lee earned his Ph.D in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1998, where he remained as faculty staff member until 1990. Joining Apple Computers as a principal research scientist, he led research and development on the projects responsible for the Apple Bandai Pippin, PlainTalk, Casper, and GalaTea speech systems for Mac Computer.

After two years in executive roles with Silicon Graphics, Dr. Lee joined Microsoft in 1998 and moved to Beijing. Helping to establish the Microsoft Research division there, he returned to the United States in 2000 to assume the role of corporate vice president of interactive services division.   In 2005, he joined Google, becoming President of Google China and a Vice President of Engineering at Google. In this role, he successfully launched Google.cn and helped establish Google’s place in the Asian market. Through his work, Dr Lee has been credited 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” – Alan Eustace.

Eventually leaving Google in 2009, Dr. Lee announced plans to create the venture capital fund that would ultimately be known as Sinovation Ventures. Now managing a US$2+ billion dual currency investment fund, Sinovation is a leading technology-savvy investment firm focusing on developing the next generation of Chinese high-tech companies. To date it has invested in over 350 portfolios in China.

Dr. Lee is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and was the Vice Chairman of the Committee of 100, an elite group of Chinese Americans. He was one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2013, and has authored ten US patents, and over one hundred journal and conference papers.

In “AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order”, Lee describes the faster-than-perceived encroachment of advanced AI, and urges major powers to both accept and embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power. He discusses the permutations for labour forces in this approaching age, and provides arguments for how to deal with the implicit dilemmas.