# Andrew Ng

Andrew Ng is a British-American computer scientist and entrepreneur known for his work in machine learning, co-founding Google Brain, Coursera, and DeepLearning.AI, and teaching millions through online courses.

Andrew Yan-Tak Ng (born April 18, 1976) is a British-American computer scientist and technology entrepreneur focusing on machine learning and artificial intelligence. He is widely recognized for co-founding Google Brain, serving as chief scientist at Baidu, and democratizing AI education through platforms like Coursera and DeepLearning.AI. As of 2024, he has taught over 8 million students through his online courses and continues to influence the field through research, investment, and advocacy.

Ng is an adjunct professor at Stanford University, where he previously served as director of the Stanford AI Lab. His work spans academia, industry, and entrepreneurship, making him one of the most prominent figures in modern AI. He has been named in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People (2012) and the Time100 AI Most Influential People (2023), reflecting his broad impact.

## Early life and education

Ng was born in London to Ronald Paul Ng, a hematologist and lecturer at UCL Medical School, and Tisa Ho, an arts administrator. His parents were immigrants from Hong Kong, and the family moved back to Hong Kong during his early childhood. In 1984, they relocated to Singapore, where Ng attended and graduated from Raffles Institution.

In 1997, Ng earned his undergraduate degree with a triple major in computer science, statistics, and economics from Carnegie Mellon University. Between 1996 and 1998, he conducted research on reinforcement learning, model selection, and feature selection at AT&T Bell Labs. He then completed a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT in 1998, where he built one of the first publicly available, automatically indexed web-search engines for research papers, a precursor to systems like CiteSeerX.

Ng received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002, under the supervision of Michael I. Jordan. His thesis, titled "Shaping and policy search in reinforcement learning," remains well-cited and laid groundwork for later work in [reinforcement learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/reinforcement-learning).

## Academic career at Stanford

Ng joined Stanford University as an assistant professor in 2002 and became an associate professor in 2009. He served as director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL), where he led research in data mining, big data, and machine learning. His machine learning course CS229 became one of the most popular on campus, with over 1,000 students enrolling in some years.

In 2008, Ng's group at Stanford was among the first in the US to advocate using GPUs for deep learning. This was a controversial decision at the time, but it proved transformative; GPUs later became a cornerstone of modern AI infrastructure. Since 2017, Ng has also advocated for high-performance computing to scale up deep learning.

His early research included the Stanford Autonomous Helicopter project, which developed one of the most capable autonomous helicopters of its time. He was also the principal investigator on the STAIR project, which led to the Robot Operating System (ROS), a widely used open-source robotics platform. His vision of AI robots in homes inspired Scott Hassan to create Willow Garage.

## Founding Coursera and online education

In 2012, Ng co-founded Coursera with Daphne Koller, offering free online courses to a global audience. The platform quickly gained traction, with over 100,000 students registering for Ng's CS229A course. As of 2020, three of the most popular courses on Coursera were Ng's: Machine Learning, AI for Everyone, and Neural Networks and Deep Learning.

Coursera became one of the leading massive open online course (MOOC) platforms, with millions of enrollments. Ng's efforts to "democratize deep learning" have reached over 8 million students through his various online offerings, making him a central figure in AI education.

## Industry leadership: Google Brain and Baidu

From 2011 to 2012, Ng worked at Google, where he founded and directed the Google Brain project with Jeff Dean, Greg Corrado, and Rajat Monga. The project developed large-scale artificial neural networks using distributed computing infrastructure, producing notable results in unsupervised learning and laying foundations for later advances in [deep learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/deep-learning).

In 2014, Ng joined Baidu as chief scientist, leading research in big data and AI. He established teams for facial recognition and healthcare AI, and developed the DuerOS platform, positioning Baidu as a leader in AI discourse. He announced his resignation from Baidu in March 2017.

## DeepLearning.AI and AI Fund

After leaving Baidu, Ng launched DeepLearning.AI, an online series of deep learning courses, including the AI for Good Specialization. He also founded LandingAI, which provides AI-powered SaaS products for enterprises. In January 2018, Ng unveiled the AI Fund, raising $175 million to invest in AI startups. In November 2021, LandingAI secured $57 million in Series A funding led by McRock Capital.

In October 2024, the AI Fund made its first investment in India, backing Jivi, an AI healthcare startup focused on diagnoses and administrative tasks. This move highlighted the growth of India's AI sector, projected to reach $22 billion by 2027.

## Research contributions

Ng's research spans machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, and natural language processing. During graduate school, he co-authored the influential paper introducing latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) with David M. Blei and Michael I. Jordan, a method widely used in topic modeling. He also contributed to the Stanford WordNet project, which uses machine learning to expand the Princeton WordNet database.

His work on [neural networks](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/neural-network) and [machine learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/machine-learning) has earned best paper awards at academic conferences. His early research on reinforcement learning for drones and autonomous systems has had a lasting impact on robotics and AI.

## Recent recognition and board roles

Ng's influence extends beyond academia and industry. He was named in Fast Company's Most Creative People in 2014 and the Time100 AI Most Influential People in 2023. On April 11, 2024, Amazon announced Ng's appointment to its board of directors, reflecting his standing in the technology sector.

As of 2024, Ng continues to lead the AI Fund, teach through DeepLearning.AI, and advocate for accessible AI education. His contributions have shaped the trajectory of [artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence) and inspired a generation of practitioners.

---
Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/andrew-ng-3
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Last updated: 2026-10-07T16:37:19.608284+00:00