Kai Fu Lee has 1.5 million followers on Twitter, where he is known first as an AI expert, and CEO of Sinovation Ventures second. In September 2021 Lee released AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future, a book he co-authored with Qiu fan Chen, the Chinese science fiction writer. Each story presents a highly probable scenario where the adoption of AI is being exploited for nefarious means—like using deepfakes to falsely discredit political opponents, or terrorists using quantum computing destroy the world economy.

Lee is not dystopic about the future, but is in fact quite the opposite, and proposes ways in which more technology can be deployed to counter or prevent the negative outcomes that stem from a “misalignment of interests”. As the founder of Sinovation, he manages a US$ 2.7 billion investment fund focusing on developing the next generation of Chinese high-tech companies. Before founding the company in 2009, Lee was president of Google China for four years.