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

by Kai-Fu Lee

On the Eve of the AI era, it is perfect timing to read an AI expert's autobiography, to learn about Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, the author of "AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley & the New World," also available on Amazon. This is the first and only authorized English version of Dr. Lee's autobiography. The original Chinese version of the sold 1.2 million copies in China in 2009 as a best seller of the year over there. Evidently, this autobiography is full of spellbinding stories. A natural-born pioneer, Dr. Lee has explored uncharted territories and developed new fields in the high-tech world. In addition, his Chinese American background has enabled him to effectively bridge corporate America with the China market. He recounts all his career experiences with Apple, Microsoft, and Google as well as his own technological achievements in this amazing autobiography. Dr. Lee was once the focus of a media sensation in 2005 when Microsoft and Google fought over him in court. He shocked the media again in 2009 by resigning from the position of Google China's president. There have been many speculations about the two incidents, behind which some insider stories are exclusively told in this book. The autobiography depicts not only Dr. Lee but also several prominent high-tech leaders he has worked with in the past two decades. It gets up close and personal with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It contains their anecdotes hardly ever known to the general public.

Genres: Artificial Intelligence, Biography, Entrepreneurship, Technology, Nonfiction, Business

321 pages, Paperback

Published January 2, 2019

Reviews

[Jan Van de Poel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book while binge-buying Kindle books one day... It got recommended when buying his “AI superpowers...” book.

The book is more of a biography than an in-depth story of building AI companies. Fortunately, I like a good biography, and this one caters some interesting stories from Silicon Valley and China.

From his achievements and experiences, you can reflect on challenging yourself further...

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kai Fu Lee has become one of my superheroes, especially after reading AI Superpowers. This book isn't quite as penetrating as that, but it is still a good read, especially to get his inside scoop of what it was like to work inside of Apple, SGI, Microsoft and Google. His departure from Microsoft, and the ensuing lawsuit and how he was treated by Ballmer and all the other MSFT execs was definitely eye opening.

[José Costa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a professional autobiography of an accomplished Chinese Ph.D. graduate at Carnegie Mellon University with a successful career in U.S. and China through Apple, SGI, Microsoft, Google, and culminating with the creation of his own company, Innovation Works, a mentoring platform for potential entrepreneurs, to guide young people with creative business ideas to work towards their dreams.

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is a clickbait. He doesn't talk about AI but about his job at Microsoft and Google doing speech recognition and managing a search engine team. I think he is a genius but he also have a big ego, At every ten pages he recalls some guy who said ”Kai-Fu Lee you are a Genius!” or Kai-Fu you are the best, and so on. The book is easy to read and you learn about the work culture of this giant organizations.

[Andy Febrico Bintoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because of the subtitle, my first impression is that this is a journey how the author launched 5 AI companies. But this is more like general biography, from childhood, college life on Melon Carnegie, works on Microsoft, Google, and the end. This is only two companies here.

[Dani Ollé · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very interesting and easy to read autobiography of a remarkable person with a dual Chinese American background, unfortunately the narration stops around 2009 so that the last years are missing and we learn nothing about the launch of 5 AI companies.

[Haluk Cavusoglu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sincere and realistic comparison of Usa and Chinese culture from the perspective of university life and Software/tech industry. Nice bits about Google`s different and refreshing culture compared to Microsoft’s. Nice anecdotes, great analysis of Usa´s supremacy in the quality of universities.
Sincerely written.

[pianostrada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the unnecessary detailed parts were skipped, but it was a nice light read overall.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring