Li Xiangang, a leading Chinese scientist in speech recognition, joined Alibaba Group Holding to lead the AI (AI) voice team and enhance the capabilities of the tech giant in the fast-growing sector.
According to sources familiar with the issue, Li, who holds a PhD in Computer and Information Sciences from Peking University, was the leading AI research role at the Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant. He fills the position held by Yan Zhijie, who previously left the company.
Alibaba owns a South China morning post.
The speech team, part of Alibaba's Tongyi Lab, focuses on multimodal speech and language models. In July 2024, Lab opened sourced two basic voice models, Sensevoice and Cosyvoice. According to Alibaba, Sensevoice's multilingual recognition outweighed Openai's whispers by 50% in Chinese and Cantonese.
Li's movement was first reported by Chinese media.
Machine learning models for speech and recognition include a wide range of AI applications, including chatbots and digital avatars. This has led to fierce competition while major Chinese tech companies wanted to take over their position in the sector. For example, Chinese search giant Baidu introduced the digital avatar of famous Chinese speaker and entrepreneur Luo Yonghao during AI Day Tuesday.
