[News Figures] Founder of China's Largest AI Company 'Tang Xiao'ou' Passes Away

Tang Xiao'ou (湯曉鷗, photo), founder of SenseTime (Shangtang Keji·商湯科技), China's largest artificial intelligence (AI) company, and professor in the Department of Information Technology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has passed away at the age of 55.

On the afternoon of the 16th, SenseTime announced via its Chinese social media WeChat account that Tang Xiao'ou died around midnight on the 15th in Shanghai after battling illness. The cause of death was not disclosed. SenseTime expressed condolences by switching its homepage to a black-and-white screen, stating, "As a pioneer of China's AI industry, Tang will continue to inspire others."

[Image source=SenseTime official WeChat account]

Tang Xiao'ou was born in 1968 in Liaoning Province, China. After graduating from the University of Science and Technology of China, he moved to the United States, earning a master's degree from the University of Rochester and a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1998, he joined the faculty of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. While pursuing his PhD at MIT, he joined an underwater robotics lab that played a key role in the search for the Titanic wreck, where he developed an interest in AI.

A leading authority in the field of computer vision, he led the "Visual Computing Group" at Microsoft Research Asia from 2005 to 2008. In 2014, he co-founded SenseTime with Xu Li, a researcher from Chinese computer maker Lenovo.

As the largest shareholder holding about 21% of SenseTime's shares, Tang had a net worth of $2.5 billion (approximately 3.26 trillion KRW), ranking 33rd among Hong Kong's wealthiest according to Forbes US in February this year. As a scholar-entrepreneur, he often said, "Do what no one else has done." While Chinese companies emphasized a competitive "wolf" culture, he stressed that "empathy" was most important. In his 2019 Tsinghua University commencement speech, he emphasized, "To be a good scholar, proper training, extraordinary talent, perseverance, and wisdom are essential, as well as empathy and collaboration with diverse people."

SenseTime possesses AI-related technologies in various fields such as facial recognition, video analysis, and autonomous driving, and is especially recognized for its world-class technology in facial recognition. Over the past decade, it has rapidly grown and, along with Kuangsk Keji (曠視科技·Megvii), Yuncong Keji (雲從科技·CloudWalk), and Yitu Keji (Yitu Technology), has been called one of the "Four Little Dragons" of China.

However, SenseTime has faced continuous difficulties in recent years. The U.S. government sanctioned all four companies for allegedly supporting the repression of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. These companies are accused of using AI technologies such as facial recognition and video analysis to identify Uygurs marked as "persons of interest" in crowds, contributing to the strengthening of China's "surveillance society." SenseTime was placed on the U.S. Department of Commerce's blacklist in October 2019 and included in the U.S. Department of the Treasury's investment restriction blacklist in December 2021.

Meanwhile, in June last year, Sun Zhen, the chief developer of Kuangsk Keji, also a U.S. sanctioned company, suddenly died at the age of 45. The cause of death was not disclosed at that time either.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.