AI scientist and founder of China’s SenseTime, Tang Xiao’ou, passes away unexpectedly due to illness.
SenseTime, the prominent Chinese AI company, has sadly confirmed the unexpected demise of its founder and esteemed computer scientist. In a statement released on Saturday, the company expressed deep sorrow, stating that Tang Xiao’ou, their cherished founder, had succumbed to an untreatable illness and passed away at 23:45 on December 15, 2023.
Tang, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumnus and former professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who founded SenseTime in 2014, was in his mid-50s.
The exact cause of the death of the well-known information technology researcher was not disclosed.
SenseTime was placed on a US trade blacklist in 2019 and accused of being an arm of China’s “military-industrial complex” because its technology was used for mass surveillance in the western region of Xinjiang.
In December 2021, the company’s IPO in Hong Kong was delayed after the United States imposed new restrictions on it over related allegations, although it went public before the end of the year.
In a statement on Saturday, SenseTime hailed Tang as “an outstanding representative of (China’s) AI industry” and called him “knowledgeable, scientifically rigorous, truth-seeking and pragmatic.”
“The company mission he articulated, ‘to demand originality and let artificial intelligence lead human development,’ inspires all SenseTime people,” the company said.
Tang had extensive experience in American academia, earning his PhD from MIT in 1996 after completing his MSc at the University of Rochester in 1991.
