Head of Google AI China Center leaves for Stanford AI healthcare projects

Li Jia, Head of Google AI China Center, has left the position for research projects at School of Medicine, Stanford University. Li Jia’s resignation is just two months after that of Li Feifei, founder of Google AI China Center, who decided to go back to Stanford University for research purposes. Li Jia was an apprentice to Li Feifei when at Stanford.

During her stay in the company, Li Jia co-led Google’s AI China Center’s with Li Feifei, and helped with AI cloud R&D and developers’ machine learning toolkits. Prior to that, Li Jia led Yahoo’s visual computation and machine learning, and was the research head of Snapchat.

“I’m now pursuing the impact of AI for good in healthcare and working full-time at Stanford University’s AIMI (Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Imaging),” Li said to local AI media Synced Review. She added that she is particularly keen in how “AI can improve the outcomes of individual patients as well as hospitals.”

It is suspected that Li Feifei’s resignation influenced Li Jia’s decision. So far, there has been no information regarding person who would take over Li Jia’s role at Google.

Rumours are also saying that Li Jia has an ambition to set up her own AI healthcare business, as Chinese scientists holding major positions at fundamental research firms are showing growing interest in startup projects. According to recent report, Zhou Shenghuo, head of Alibaba’s AI-backed Decision Intelligence Lab, will reportedly join Beijing-based startup Aibee.