选自Medium

机器之心编译

目前任职百度首席科学家、领导百度的人工智能研究的吴恩达刚在 Medium 上发布了一份公开信，称将会辞去在百度的工作。机器之心对这份公开信进行了编译。

吴恩达Twitter发布的消息

大家好，今天我宣布将离开百度，我曾在领导过公司的人工智能团队。百度的人工智能团队非常强大，拥有很多人才。我对于百度人工智能的未来非常有信心。在离开百度以后，我将继续致力于让人工智能改变社会，希望在不久的将来，人工智能技术可以为所有人带来福祉。

百度的人工智能

我在 2014 年加入百度，负责人工智能工作。到现在，百度的人工智能团队已经增长到近 1300 人，其中包括 300 名百度研究院成员。上亿的用户每天都在使用我们的人工智能软件。我们通过许许多多人工智能产品项目支持我们的搜索、广告、地图、外卖、语音搜索、安全、消费金融等等现有业务，提升产品，拉动收入。

我们也使用了人工智能开发新的业务线。过去两年，我们的团队每年都会产出新的业务单元：自动驾驶汽车和 DuerOS 对话计算平台。我们也孵化了其他潜在的技术，比如面部识别（用在闸机口，有人靠近时自动开门）、Melody(一个面向医疗的人工智能对话机器人）等等。作为百度人工智能策略的理论架构，能带领该公司人工智能的惊人崛起我感到骄傲。

现在，百度是为数不多几个在每个主要人工智能领域都拥有世界级专业技术的公司之一：语音，自然语言处理，计算机视觉，机器学习以及知识图谱。我很荣幸曾经领导了百度的人工智能团队，并与公司杰出的团队合作，从管理层到杰出工程师、科学家、产品经理以及其他同事。李彦宏是第一个清楚看到深度学习技术价值的大型公司CEO，也仍然是全球最好的理解人工智能的CEO之一。COO 陆奇是一位经验丰富的商业管理者，有着非常丰富的人工智能经验。在他的领导下，百度的人工智能会走向繁荣。王海峰是人工智能团队的新负责人，也是一位出色的研究人员和技术领导人；在他的领导下，团队一定会取得更大的成功。林元庆，我们新任命的百度研究院负责人，是一位优秀的技术和商业领导人，正在创造好的人工智能技术，并取得良好的商业成果。在他们以及百度人工智能之星（比如，Adam Coates, Jing Kun, Li Ping, Xu Wei 以及 Zhu Kaihua）的强大领导下，百度的人工智能会继续蓬勃下去，我会为他们的进步喝彩。

人工智能是新电能

正如百年前电能改变了很多行业一样，人工智能也正在改变着医疗、交通、娱乐、制造业等主要行业，丰富充实着无数人的生活。对于人工智能将带领我们前往何方，我比以往都要兴奋和期待。

通过早先作为谷歌大脑项目创始人之一与最近在百度所担任的角色，在从领先的技术公司转型为「人工智能公司」的过程中，我起到了一些作用。但人工智能的潜力远远大于其对技术公司的影响。

在这一重要的社会变革中我将继续领导工作。我希望所有人拥有自动驾驶汽车，可自然地与对话式计算机交谈，健康机器人也能理解人类生病的原因。工业革命把人类从重复的体力劳动中解放了出来，现在我希望人工智能可以把人类从重复的脑力劳动中解放出来。这一事业不可能由单个公司完成，而是由全球的人工智能研究者和工程师共同完成。我在 Coursera 上开设的机器学习在线课程帮助很多人成功踏进人工智能之门。除了自己致力于人工智能，我将还探索在全球人工智能社区中协助所有人的新方式，因此让我们齐心协力共创人工智能社会的繁荣。

对于借助人工智能打造了不起的未来，我比任何时候都更加乐观。让我们继续努力工作，让人工智能帮助每个人。

Opening a new chapter of my work in AI

Dear Friends,

I will be resigning from Baidu, where I have been leading the company’s AI Group. Baidu’s AI is incredibly strong, and the team is stacked up and down with talent; I am confident AI at Baidu will continue to flourish. After Baidu, I am excited to continue working toward the AI transformation of our society and the use of AI to make life better for everyone.

Artificial Intelligence at Baidu

I joined Baidu in 2014 to work on AI. Since then, Baidu’s AI group has grown to roughly 1,300 people, which includes the 300-person Baidu Research. Our AI software is used every day by hundreds of millions of people. We have had tremendous revenue and product impact, through the many dozens of AI projects that support our existing businesses in search, advertising, maps, take-out delivery, voice search, security, consumer finance and many more.

We have also used AI to develop new lines of business. My team birthed one new business unit per year each of the last two years: autonomous driving and the DuerOS Conversational Computing platform. We are also incubating additional promising technologies, such as face-recognition (used in turnstiles that open automatically when an authorized person approaches), Melody (an AI-powered conversational bot for healthcare) and several more. As the principal architect of Baidu’s AI strategy, I am proud to have led the incredible rise of AI within the company.

Baidu is now one of the few companies with world-class expertise in every major AI area: speech, NLP, computer vision, machine learning, knowledge graph. It’s been an honor to lead the AI Group and work with Baidu’s remarkable team, from the executive leadership to the brilliant engineers, scientists, product managers and others. Robin Li was the first large company CEO to clearly see the value of deep learning, and remains globally one of the best AI CEOs. COO Lu Qi is a seasoned business executive with significant experience in AI; with his leadership, AI at Baidu will flourish. Wang Haifeng, the new head of the AI Group, is a fantastic researcher and technology leader; his leadership firmly positions the team for future greatness. Lin Yuanqing, our newly appointed head of Baidu Research, is a brilliant technology and business leader, who is creating both great AI technologies and great business results. Under their capable leadership, and that of other AI stars at Baidu such as Adam Coates, Jing Kun, Li Ping, Xu Wei, and Zhu Kaihua, AI at Baidu will continue to thrive, and I will be cheering their progress.

I’ve also been privileged to learn from both the U.S. and Chinese AI communities — both of which are powerhouses. The U.S. is very good at inventing new technology ideas. China is very good at inventing and quickly shipping AI products. I’m happy also to have had an opportunity to contribute to the rise of AI in both China and the U.S.

AI is the new electricity

Just as electricity transformed many industries roughly 100 years ago, AI will also now change nearly every major industry — healthcare, transportation, entertainment, manufacturing — enriching the lives of countless people. I am more excited than ever about where AI can take us.

AI is the new electricity

As the founding lead of the Google Brain project, and more recently through my role at Baidu, I have played a role in the transformation of two leading technology companies into “AI companies.” But AI’s potential is far bigger than its impact on technology companies.

I will continue my work to shepherd in this important societal change. In addition to transforming large companies to use AI, there are also rich opportunities for entrepreneurship as well as further AI research. I want all of us to have self-driving cars; conversational computers that we can talk to naturally; and healthcare robots that understand what ails us. The industrial revolution freed humanity from much repetitive physical drudgery; I now want AI to free humanity from repetitive mental drudgery, such as driving in traffic. This work cannot be done by any single company — it will be done by the global AI community of researchers and engineers. My Machine Learning MOOC on Coursera helped many people enter AI. In addition to working on AI myself, I will also explore new ways to support all of you in the global AI community, so that we can all work together to bring this AI-powered society to fruition.

I am more optimistic than ever about the fantastic future we will build with AI. Lets keep working hard to get AI to help everyone!