Person attributes
Xu Li is a Chinese computer scientist who cofounded and is the CEO of SenseTime. Xu Li is known for his research in computer vision, pattern classification, image processing, and computational photography. In 2015, he cofounded SenseTime, an AI company specializing in facial recognition technology. Xu Li has been CEO of the company since it started. After three years in business, SenseTime was estimated to be the most valuable AI start-up in the world after the company raised USD$600 million in its 2018 series C funding round. SenseTime's technology is used by hundreds of clients in China, including Meitu, Weibo, and Xiaomi.
Xu Li previously worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and as a manager and advisory researcher for Lenovo. Xu Li has published a number of papers and has been a reviewer for journals and conferences.
Xu Li was born in Shanghai in the 1980s. Between 2000 and 2004, he completed a bachelor's in computer science and engineering at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He remained at the university, graduating with a master's in computer science and engineering in 2007. Xu Li worked with supervisor Professor Feihu Qi during his master's, working on practical pattern classification problems such as text localization and recognition, face detection, and tracking. The face tracking algorithm he worked on during his masters was incorporated into Omron's face tracker.
Xu Li completed his doctoral degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2010. During his PhD, Xu Li conducted research on low-level computer vision and computational photography. His dissertation was on motion estimation and motion deblurring under advisor Leo Jiaya Jia. While working on his PhD, Xu Li met Professor Tang Xiaoou in the Department of Information Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The two would later collaborate on SenseTime.
After completing his PhD, Xu Li became a postdoctoral fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong leading PhD and masters students researching computer vision while researching the field. In 2013, Xu Li spent a month as a visiting research scholar at Microsoft Research New England, working with Dr. Ce Liu. In August 2013, he began working at Lenovo in Hong Kong as a manager and advisory researcher.
Xu Li cofounded and became CEO of AI start-up SenseTime in 2015. The company commercializes AI and computer vision tools, in particular, facial recognition technology. SenseTime developed the DeepID series of facial recognition computing technology. In 2017, at the CVPR (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition) academic conference, SenseTime and the CAS-HKU (Chinese Academy of Sciences - Hong Kong University) joint laboratories released twenty-three theses together. In 2018, after completing a series C funding round of over $600 million (USD), the company was valued at $4.5 billion (USD), making it the most valuable AI start-up in the world. SenseTime has partnerships with hundreds of companies and organizations to use its technology. This includes MIT, Qualcomm, Honda, Ali, China Mobile, OPPO and Xiaomi.
