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Meng Jing

Baidu, the operator of China’s largest online search service, said on Friday that its chief operating officer, Lu Qi, will step down to take on a new role, in the latest executive reshuffle at the company as it focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) to drive future growth.
Lu, a former executive at Microsoft who joined Baidu in January last year, will step down from the position in July because of “personal and family reasons”, the Beijing-based internet giant said in a post on its official WeChat account on Friday.
It said Lu will take on the position of vice-chairman at Baidu. He had joined Baidu at a time when it was being repositioned as an AI-first company.
“We have seen many positive changes at Baidu since Qi joined last year,” said company chairman and chief executive Robin Li Yanhong in a statement on Friday.
This Chinese city plans a US$16 billion fund for AI development
The company’s senior management team will report to Li directly after Lu moves to his new role. Company vice-president Wang Haifeng will be promoted to senior vice-president to oversee Baidu’s AI projects, according to the company.
Those will mark the latest high-profile executive reshuffles at Baidu. In March last year, Andrew Ng, who served as the chief scientist at Baidu, left after three years on the job leading the online search provider’s AI research.


Lu’s move has come at a critical time for Baidu, which had been tasked by the Chinese government last year to spearhead the development of autonomous driving in the country. 
The share price of Nasdaq-traded Baidu dropped 6.61 per cent before trading on Friday. 


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Baidu

Baidu COO Lu Qi steps down in latest reshuffle at ‘China’s Google’ 

Baidu, the operator of China’s largest online search service, said on Friday that its chief operating officer, Lu Qi, will step down, marking the latest executive reshuffle at the company. Photo: Reuters

Who’s winning the self-driving car race?

Alphabet’s Waymo, which has run self-driving cars over 8 million kilometres in 25 cities and done billions more in computer simulation, is currently leading the pack of companies working on autonomous vehicles

The Mercedes EQA concept car front hood with digital screen with the logo is seen during the Beijing Auto Show in Beijing on April 25, 2018. Global carmakers touted their latest electric and SUV models in Beijing as they warily welcomed China's promise of better foreign access to the world's largest auto market, where domestic vehicles are making major inroads. Industry behemoths like Volkswagen, Daimler, Toyota, Nissan, Ford and others are displaying more than 1,000 models and dozens of concept cars at the Beijing auto show. / AFP PHOTO / NICOLAS ASFOURI

The dashboard of the Tesla Model S P90D. The Pentagon is going to introduce self-driving cars to the military. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

TED Conference attendees board a self-driving BMW car for a ride in Vancouver on April 11, 2018. The annual TED Conference is attended by thousands of people and is held from April 10-14. / AFP PHOTO / Glenn CHAPMAN

FILE - In this Tuesday, June 13, 2017, file photo, a self-driving Chevrolet Bolt EV that is in General Motors Co.'s autonomous vehicle development program appears on display at GM's Orion Assembly in Lake Orion, Mich. One problem with self-driving cars is people. The Los Angeles Times reports that of six crash reports filed in California in 2018, two involved a person attacking a robot car. Both incidents happened in San Francisco, according to Department of Motor Vehicles records. (Jose Juarez/Detroit News via AP, File)

An Uber self-driving Ford Fusion sits at a traffic light on Beechwood Boulevard and waits to turn onto Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh. (Darrell Sapp/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017, file photo, an autonomous vehicle is driven by an engineer on a street in an industrial park in Boston. Harvard University's School of Public Health is holding a forum on Friday, May 4, 2018, to examine how recent deaths linked to self-driving technology are causing concern about safety, and raising questions about whether the field is moving too quickly. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

People take test ride of a Baidu driverless car in street in Wuhen on Nov. 16, 2016. The 3rd World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit opens in Wuzhen, China's Zhejiang province on Nov. 26, 2016. 16NOV16 SCMP/Simon Song

A journalist sitting in the driver's seat of the all-new minivan Serena from Japanese auto giant Nissan Motor takes his hands off the steering wheel during a test drive, at the test course of the company's Oppama plant in Yokohsuka, in suburban Tokyo, on July 13, 2016. Nissan will release the new vehicle, equipped with autonomous drive technology designed for highway use in single-lane traffic, in late August. / AFP PHOTO / TORU YAMANAKA

LAS VEGAS, NV - JANUARY 05: Toyota's Concept-i, an autonomous self-diving vehicle is displayed at the Toyota booth at CES 2017 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on January 5, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs through January 8 and features 3,800 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to more than 165,000 attendees. David Becker/Getty Images/AFP [2017 FEATURES TRANSPORTFUTURE]

The Audi AG A8 L Quattro vehicle is displayed during AutoMobility LA ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017. AutoMobility LA brings automakers, tech companies, designers, developers, startups, investors, dealers, government officials and analysts together to unveil the future of transportation with over 50 vehicle debuts. Photographer: Troy Harvey/Bloomberg

FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, the Waymo driverless car is displayed during a Google event in San Francisco. A federal criminal investigation into alleged espionage at Uber has indefinitely delayed a trial over whether the beleaguered ride-hailing service stole self-driving car technology from Waymo, a spinoff from Google. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

(FILES) This file handout picture provided by Swedish carmaker Volvo taken on April 27, 2016 shows a woman reading inside a so-called autonomous driving (AD) car. Swedish carmaker Volvo Cars said on November 20, 2017 it has signed an agreement to supply "tens of thousands" of self-driving cars to the ride-sharing company, Uber, which has been hit by a series of controversies. / AFP PHOTO / VOLVO / Handout / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO /VOLVO / HANDOUT" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google parent Alphabet, is the only company that has tested Level 4 vehicles on passengers who are not its employees. On the five-step scale of autonomous driving, Level 4 is the threshold at which a car can drive on pre-mapped routes and handle anything on its planned course without the intervention of a driver. Photo: Handout

Baidu’s self-driving cars require more human intervention than Alphabet’s Waymo

A line of Baidu driverless cars are pictured in Wuzhen, China's Zhejiang province. Photo: Simon Song

Here’s what China is doing to boost its artificial intelligence capabilities

The development of AI, seen as one of the key drivers of economic growth in the new economy, has been one of China’s national priorities since July 2017

Investments in AI

US President Donald Trump’s AI conference will draw on the insights from around 40 US tech companies including Amazon, Facebook and Google, as well as a selection of leading academics. Photo: AFP

Baidu likens stir over fatal Uber crash in US to ‘man bites dog’ story

Robin Li, chief executive officer of Baidu, said driverless cars were safe despite the Uber fatality. Photo: Reuters