SenseTime Group co-founder Tang Xiao’ou passed away due to illness on Friday night, the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) giant said in a social media post, reports Caixin. The 55-year-old executive director of SenseTime was primarily responsible for designing its research and innovation strategies, according to the Hong Kong-listed company’s 2022 annual report.
Tang was one of China’s leading AI specialists. He was ranked among Asia’s top five computer scientists in 2020 by Guide2Research, a global academic research portal that has been renamed Research.com.
Tang co-founded SenseTime in 2014, and attracted funds from big-name investors, including IDG Capital, SoftBank Group, Alibaba Group and Silver Lake Group. SenseTime’s Hong Kong IPO in 2021 made him one of China’s richest people.