Founder of leading Chinese AI company dies suddenly. US Republicans continue investigation into Biden’s impeachment

The founder of China’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) company and influential computer scientist Tang Xiao’ou has died unexpectedly. Tang left us “due to an incurable disease,” his company Sensetime said on Saturday.

More detailed information about the cause of death of the respected scientist and company founder was not provided in the online announcement. Sensetime is best known for its facial recognition software.

Tang studied at the University of Rochester in the American state of New York. In 1996 he received his PhD from the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston. He later became a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2014 he founded Sensetime.

Blacklisted

The company was blacklisted in the US in 2019 as it was deemed an arm of the “military-industrial complex” for using its technology for mass surveillance in the Uighur province of Xinjiang. Human rights organizations accuse the authorities there of large-scale human rights violations. Sensetime’s IPO had to be postponed in 2021 because the company faced US sanctions.

Sensetime’s software was also used during the corona pandemic in China: to measure temperature, to determine whether someone is wearing a face mask, and for identification – even with a face mask.

Sensetime praised Tang in a statement as “an outstanding representative in the field of artificial intelligence,” calling him “knowledgeable, rigorous in science, truth-seeker and pragmatic.” (sda/afp)