Dr. Andrew Ng stands as a preeminent leader in artificial intelligence and machine learning, currently holding the position of Founder of DeepLearning.AI, Executive Chairman of LandingAI, General Partner at AI Fund, and Chairman & Co-Founder of Coursera. He maintains an active academic role as an Adjunct Professor in Stanford University's Computer Science Department, continuing his long-standing commitment to education and research. Dr. Ng received his formal education from prestigious institutions including a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science, statistics, and economics from Carnegie Mellon University in 1997, MIT, and the University of California, Berkeley, establishing the foundation for his groundbreaking career. His professional journey includes significant leadership roles as Chief Scientist at Baidu where he built the Artificial Intelligence Group into a team of several thousand people, and as the founding lead of Google Brain at Google. These strategic positions have cemented his reputation as a visionary who bridges academic excellence with industrial-scale implementation of AI technologies.
Dr. Ng's pioneering work in deep learning has fundamentally reshaped the field, most notably through his leadership of the Google Brain project which developed massive-scale neural network algorithms capable of learning from unlabeled data. His research team's famous "Google cat" experiment, where a billion-parameter neural network autonomously learned to recognize cats from YouTube videos, demonstrated the extraordinary potential of unsupervised deep learning approaches. Beyond his technical contributions, Dr. Ng revolutionized global access to AI education by spearheading Stanford University's MOOC platform in 2011 and teaching the inaugural Machine Learning course to over 100,000 students, which directly led to the founding of Coursera. Today, his educational platforms have empowered over 8 million learners worldwide, democratizing access to cutting-edge AI knowledge and practical skills across diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. This dual focus on advancing core AI research while simultaneously building scalable educational infrastructure has established Dr. Ng as a uniquely influential figure whose work touches both theoretical advancements and practical implementations.
Dr. Ng's commitment to responsible AI development extends beyond education into practical applications through his ventures including LandingAI, which provides AI-powered SaaS products for industrial automation and manufacturing quality control. Recognized globally for his contributions, he was named to Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2012, Fast Company's Most Creative People in 2014, and the Time100 AI Most Influential People list in 2023. In 2018, he launched the AI Fund, a $175-million investment vehicle dedicated to accelerating the adoption of AI technologies across diverse sectors. Most recently, his appointment to Amazon's board of directors in April 2024 underscores his continued influence in shaping the strategic direction of major technology companies. Through his ongoing work, Dr. Ng remains steadfast in his mission to create a world where AI technology benefits everyone, not just a select few, ensuring that artificial intelligence development remains ethical, accessible, and universally beneficial.