Baidu Whiz Must Outsmart Google at Artificial Intelligence -- WSJ

For much of the past two decades, Qi Lu, a search-technology whiz, waged losing battles against Google, first at Yahoo Inc. then at Microsoft Corp.'s Bing. Four months ago, he relocated to his native China to take on a challenge that some in the tech world think is just as quixotic: reviving Baidu Inc. The company's core search engine business once made it the Google of China, but it has been beset by bad decisions, scandals and falling profits, leaving its future uncertain. Mr. Lu says he's confident he can turn Baidu around -- and take on Google once again, this time on the new battlefield of artificial intelligence. Mr. Lu has been prone to hubris before. When he joined Microsoft in 2009, he threw down the gauntlet at Google, saying Bing would be an effective competitor.