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Song-Chun
Zhu,
founding
director
of the
Beijing
Institute
of
General
Artificial
Intelligence
(BigAI).
Photo:
zhusongchun |
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After
Decades
in
America,
Leading
AI
Researcher
Song-Chun
Zhu Bets
Future
on China
Nilay
Seetharaman
-
Technology
Tell Us
USA News
Network
BEIJING
-
Prominent
artificial
intelligence
pioneer
Song-Chun
Zhu,
long
based in
the
United
States,
has
relocated
to China
after
nearly
three
decades
in
American
academia,
underscoring
the
deepening
technological
rivalry
between
Washington
and
Beijing.
Song-Chun
Zhu, 56,
a
leading
figure
in
computer
vision
and
cognitive
AI,
spent
around
28 years
in the
US,
including
18 years
as a
professor
at the
University
of
California,
Los
Angeles,
where he
led
influential
research
programs
backed
by US
federal
agencies.
Trained
at
Harvard
University
after
his
undergraduate
degree
in
China,
Zhu
became
known
for work
aimed at
enabling
machines
to
interpret
visual
scenes
with
human-like
understanding,
helping
lay
foundations
for
today’s
advanced
AI
systems.
In
August
2020,
Zhu
boarded
a
one-way
flight
from the
US to
Beijing,
leaving
his
tenured
post at
UCLA to
take up
senior
roles in
China’s
rapidly
expanding
AI
ecosystem.
He has
since
been
appointed
chair
professor
at
Peking
University
and
named
founding
director
of the
Beijing
Institute
for
General
Artificial
Intelligence
(BIGAI),
a new
state-backed
research
hub
focused
on
long-term
AI
breakthroughs.
Zhu has
cited a
combination
of
scientific
ambition
and
geopolitical
pressure
for the
move,
saying
China
offered
resources
and
institutional
backing
that he
“could
never
get in
the
United
States”
and
calling
the
opportunity
“once in
a
lifetime”
to build
the
system
he
envisioned.
He
became
increasingly
skeptical
of
data-hungry,
commercial
benchmark-driven
AI in
the
West,
promoting
instead
a “small
data,
big
tasks”
approach
that
seeks
causal
reasoning,
social
intuition
and
human-like
understanding
rather
than
sheer
scale.
Zhu’s
relocation
unfolded
against
rising
US–China
tensions,
stricter
US
scrutiny
of
Chinese
researchers,
and visa
and
funding
uncertainty
that
affected
cross‑border
scientific
collaboration.
Reports
say his
earlier
collaboration
with
Huawei
and
extensive
US
defense-related
grants
drew
growing
attention,
complicating
funding
even as
American
agencies
had
provided
tens of
millions
of
dollars
to his
research
over the
years.
In
Beijing,
municipal
and
central
authorities
have
pledged
substantial
support
for
Zhu’s
work,
with
reports
indicating
he has
secured
several
hundred
million
dollars
in
research
funding
and a
leading
role in
shaping
national
AI
strategy.
Zhu has
described
advanced
AI as
the
“strategic
commanding
heights”
of
global
competition,
comparing
its
importance
to the
atomic
bomb in
information
technology
and
urging
China to
pursue
long-horizon,
mission-level
AI
programs.
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