Andrew Ng speaking in 2014. Image: Ken Yeung – www.thelettertwo.com/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Andrew Ng has cemented himself as a leading researcher in the field of AI, and now he is managing a new $150m kitty to fund its development.
Andrew Ng appears to have big plans for artificial intelligence (AI) in the years to come after it was revealed that the former Google and Baidu AI developer is to manage a new $150m fund for companies working in the technology.
An SEC filing in the US, seen by PE Hub Network, revealed the fund from the man who was recently included in Siliconrepublic.com’s list of the biggest AI influencers.
Ng’s last major role was as chief scientist for Baidu where, for nearly three years, he oversaw the Chinese company’s biggest innovation in AI and machine learning. He announced that he was leaving the role in March of this year.
Prior to Baidu, Ng rose to prominence as Google’s chief data scientist and founder of the company’s Brain Team, a group focused on ushering in the latest technologies to make machines more intelligent.
Some of the projects that have been created from the group include TensorFlow, an open-source programme to recognise images or translate languages, for example.
Building a ‘new AI-powered society’
Earlier this month, Ng ended months of speculation regarding his plans after Baidu, with the launch of a new series of online courses on the subject of AI called Deeplearning.ai.
Speaking with Wired, Ng said the courses were designed for people without any background in AI in order to learn the skills they need, with the aim of building a “new AI-powered society”.
He said: “The only way to build this is if there are hundreds of thousands of people with the skills to do things like improve the water supply for your city or help resource allocation in developing economies.”
Ng has not been shy in emphasising the importance of AI in society now and in the future, with David Moloney of Intel paraphrasing him at Inspirefest 2017, saying that AI will be more important a breakthrough than the harnessing of electricity.
Andrew Ng speaking in 2014. Image: Ken Yeung – www.thelettertwo.com/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
