Media

Distinguished Artificial Intelligence pioneer Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and President of Sinovation Venture’s Artificial Intelligence Institute, gave a featured talk titled “Will China become a Deep Tech Superpower? Opportunities for Deep Tech Entrepreneurship” at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on August 30 (Tuesday).

In the talk, Dr. Lee discussed whether China could become a deep tech superpower, given its current status as an AI superpower.  He examined China’s growing scientific prowess, exceptional entrepreneurial ecosystem, huge market (and data), and unprecedented government support, and concluded that China has a tremendous opportunity to co-lead the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Dr. Lee also shared how his firm Sinovation Ventures invested in AI and helped create ten AI unicorns, and how Sinovation prepares to expand into all deep technologies, to usher in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In 2017, Dr. Lee wrote the seminal book AI Superpowers in which he predicted China’s rise to become an AI superpower.  This prediction was met with skepticism from the Silicon Valley, but those who read the book today will no doubt marvel at his prescience. In 2022, Dr. Lee released a new book, AI 2041, which further predicts that a set of advanced technologies will usher in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and this will be the greatest technological revolution ever.  These technologies include AI, robotics, industrial automation, semiconductor chip design, sustainable energy, synthetic biology, drug discovery, multi-omics, and quantum computing.  The book describes how technologies will synergistically combine to reshape our entire society, reinvent all existing industries and create many new ones – just like how the first three industrial revolutions fundamentally changed our world.

The talk was jointly hosted by the Technology Transfer Office, Faculty of Engineering and HKU Business School.

About Dr. KF Lee
Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is the Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and President of Sinovation Venture’s Artificial Intelligence Institute. Sinovation Ventures, managing US$3 billion dual currency investment funds, is a leading venture capital firm focusing on developing the next generation of Chinese high-tech companies. Prior to founding Sinovation in 2009, Dr. Lee was the President of Google China, and he had been a senior executive at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple.

Dr. Lee received his Bachelor degree from Computer Science from Columbia University, Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Carnegie Mellon and the City University of Hong Kong. He is the Co-Chair of Artificial Intelligence Council for World Economic Forum Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Time 100 in 2013, WIRED 25 Icons, Asian Business Leader 2018 by Asia House, and followed by over 50 million audience on social media.  He is the author of AI Superpowers and AI 2041.

For media enquiries, please contact:
Communications and Public Affairs Office, HKU
Melanie Wan
Tel: 2859 2600 / Email: melwkwan@hku.hk