Kai-Fu Lee - My Journey into AI: The Story Behind the Man Who Helped Launch 5 A.I. Companies Worth $25 Billion

Copyright 2018 by Cranberry Press

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-7320497-3-4
Ebook 978-1-7320497-5-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

A family portrait of August 2009 with wife Shen-Ling (second to left), daughters Jennifer (right) and Cynthia (left)

A celebration of Google China's new site in 2006

Foreword
Why Dont We Agree to Disagree?

On January 12, 2010 at 7:10 a.m., my phone rang. It was from David Barboza of the New York Times. I picked up the phone, and David asked, Kai-Fu, I want to talk to you about Google pulling out of China.

I respected David a great deal he had written several stories about my work at Google, always with exceptional insight and in lightening time. But this was one interview I could not do.

After politely declining his interview, my phone rang again the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, AP, the Chinese portals, Chinese Dailies. By the time I returned home that night, my cell phone had run out of battery from ringing all day.

My energy was as drained as the battery in my phone. It was exhausting to see my hard work in four years crumble in one day. My four-year tenure as President of Google China was the most exhilarating experience hiring 700 brilliant and dedicated people and rallying them to compete against the 7000-person Baidu, Chinas largest search engine; developing a Silicon Valley culture yet localizing it to fit in China; bringing Google China's market share from 10% to 35% while Yahoo, eBay, AOL and other Internet giants gave up their China ventures; reaching a 2010 revenue level reported to be $600 million; creating great products from the most accurate web search to the most popular map and mobile products that delighted Chinese users.

I said to myself, If Google pulls out, the products will become inaccessible to most users, and the worlds number-one brand Google may become unrecognizable in the worlds most populous country.

I asked myself, What would happen to all the hard work that my team and I put in over those four years? Would things have been different had I not resigned from Google on September 4, 2009?

That night and every night that week, it was difficult for me to go to sleep I continued to think about what happened, what made it happen, and what might be next

More than a year has passed since then. As of October 2011, Google's market share in China has dropped to single-digit. Its services are harder and harder for Chinese users to access.

Looking back, I realize the Google China drama was the perfect manifestation of the never-ending China-America chasm. These two great countries and their people are forever trying to understand each other but end up succumbing to stereotypes; hearing the others words but not comprehending the meaning; endorsing each other in words but undermining each other in deeds; demanding the other to accommodate and empathize but remaining intransigent itself. In my view, these phenomena all boil down to a lack of understanding.

I remember when I took a prominent lawyer to visit the Forbidden Palace in Beijing. After several hours touring the exquisite grounds, she could no longer hold back her question, and had to ask me, Kai-Fu, please tell me, where is the emperor? If a highly educated lawyer does not know that Chinas monarchy ended in 1911 and the post-1979 China is a socialist state practicing capitalist economy, what hope do we have that two countries will know each other?

I remember when I started Microsoft Research China, and visited the dean of Engineering at the famous Tsinghua University. I asked him if he could send students to be our interns. But the word intern made no sense to him, as there had never been any companies trying to hire interns from his esteemed school. After much explanation, something clicked, and he said, Oh, I get it. Interns. Like Monica Lewinski. If intern becomes a symbol of promiscuity, then how can the Chinese truly understand the way the American R&D system became the worlds best?

I remember while heading up Microsoft Research China, being swamped by angry Chinese reporters demanding an explanation why Bill Gates called Chinese people thieves. I later learned that Gates had told Fortune, As long as they [Chinese people] are going to steal [software], we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade. As the worlds richest person, Gates usually speaks his mind, and in this case he was angry about piracy. But neither he nor his PR managers understood that what he said not only made Microsoft a scheming company with a conspiracy to dominate China and stifle local competition, but worse, he dishonored and insulted the entire people. Honor (also known as face) is more important to the Chinese than virtually anything.

So this is why my job as the China executive for American companies was difficult. It was like the job of a diplomat when neither country understood the other, or the job of a marriage counselor trying to help a hopelessly stubborn couple get back together, or the job of a translator between people from two planets.

Over the years, I have learned that if each country could understand the others history, culture, and viewpoint, and accept that there are some issues that the two countries will agree to disagree, there would be tremendous progress. I have come to really like the wise Chinese proverb yi zhong qiu tong, which means seeking common ground while accepting differences. This is precisely the mindset that both countries need.

Ive done everything I could to help prominent American companies understand China. Now Im also helping promising companies of China understand America, the world, and Chinas responsibilities as it rises in this world. I believe China and America will respect each other more if both nations see what I have seen.

Through my personal stories, I hope the Chinese will realize that when Americans appear to be self-righteous, not to assume it is because Americans are aggressive bullies, but consider that it might be because American's desire to help and share their formula for success. American behaviors are shaped by Americas rapid rise to prosperity, and a deep sense of righteousness.

Through my personal stories, I hope that Americans will recognize that when the Chinese appear to be autocratic, not to assume it is because Chinese are power-hungry thugs, but consider that it might be from their desire to lengthen stability and pave the ground for a better tomorrow. Chinese behaviors are shaped by Chinas older glorious history that makes them proud, and also by newer traumatic history that makes them cautious.

So this is why I have decided to write this book about my life and my stories. It is not because my life is so spectacular, but because I hope my stories can shed some light on China and America.

I hope my stories will help the Chinese and Americans better understand each other.