Cao Liangliang, former principal engineer and director at Google DeepMind and an IEEE Fellow known for his work on foundational AI systems at Google, Apple, and IBM, has returned to Hong Kong after a 20-year absence. Last week, he was appointed Chair Professor of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), marking a significant homecoming for the city’s AI community.

Cao’s career began under the mentorship of Tang Xiao’ou at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Multimedia Laboratory (MMLab) in 2003. Tang, a PhD graduate of MIT who returned to Hong Kong in 1998 to teach at CUHK, played a pivotal role in recruiting top graduates from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), including Cao. Before Tang’s death in 2023, many of these recruits became leading figures in China’s AI industry.

Born in Donggang, Liaoning province, Cao was admitted to USTC in 1998 and graduated in 2003, the same year he met Tang Xiao’ou. He earned his master’s degree from MMLab in 2005 and worked there until 2006 before moving to the United States to pursue a PhD at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Cao’s global influence in machine learning spans pioneering AI projects such as Gemini, Apple Intelligence, and Vision Pro. His return to Hong Kong is seen as a potential boost to the city’s academic and technological ecosystem.

On his personal website, Cao described the move as "a full-circle moment."

Sources