The US-educated scientist on a mission to nurture Chinese AI talent

Ma Yi explains why he gave up tenure at UC Berkeley to serve as head of the University of Hong Kong’s computing school

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Ma Yi, head of the Department of Computer Science and chair professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Hong Kong. Photo: Zhou Xin

Published: 8:00am, 26 Oct 2024

Ma Yi remembers the long list of renowned Chinese researchers trained by Microsoft Research Asia, the US tech giant’s laboratory. Now as new head of the University of Hong Kong (HKU)’s computing school, the Chinese-born artificial intelligence (AI) scientist said he is trying to rebuild that nurturing environment, which creates opportunities for talent to shine.

In an interview with the Post on Thursday, the leader of the recently merged School of Computing and Data Science said he gave up his tenure at the University of California, Berkeley to take up his role in Hong Kong because he sees more that he can do in this part of the world. That includes grooming researchers.

“China does not lack talent … what it actually lacks is a mechanism to nurture them, to grow them,” said Ma, who has worked on both sides of the Pacific in a career spanning academia and industries. “We have the top talent, raw talent, but they need the right environment, the system, to grow.”

Ma is among a growing list of Chinese scientists returning from US institutions to serve in Hong Kong and the mainland, lending key support to China’s rising technology rivalry with the United States.

There is no lack of AI talent in China, only a lack of mechanism to train them, according to Ma Yi. Photo: Getty Images

A 2000 doctoral graduate from UC Berkeley and a 1995 graduate from China’s Tsinghua University, Ma is one of the world’s most recognised AI experts. From 2000 to 2011, he served as a faculty member at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and briefly worked with Li Fei-fei, a Chinese-American computer scientist and AI pioneer at Stanford University.

From 2009 to 2014, Ma worked for Microsoft Research Asia with a group of researchers who later became leading figures in China’s AI industry. They include the late Tang Xiaoou, co-founder of AI software company SenseTime, and Wang Jian, chief technology officer at Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post.