Baidu research chief Andrew Ng fixed on self-taught computers, self-driving cars

Artificial-intelligence whiz Andrew Ng hangs his hat these days at a nondescript building in Sunnyvale that serves as the Silicon Valley outpost of the Chinese search giant Baidu. The modest digs belie Baidu's big Asian footprint. With more than 600 million monthly active mobile users, it's often referred to as "the Google of China." Like Google, Baidu has been exploring artificial intelligence (AI) for use on its servers and other applications. AI is deemed so important by Baidu that two years ago it hired Ng, who founded Google's Brain Team, to be its chief scientist.