Part of what makes Lee special is that he has unique insight into the most important tech trends shaping the world and the powerful companies leading the charge.
Lee spent a big part of his childhood in the United States, and the first half of his career at Apple, Microsoft and Google. Fluent in English, Lee speaks slowly and carefully, choosing each word precisely.
At Carnegie Mellon, where Lee earned his PhD, he developed the world's first speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition system.
In 2009, after leaving Google, Lee became a prominent investor in Chinese startups. So, when he talks about whether the US or China will win in AI, people listen.
Lee's new book, “AI Super-Powers, China, Silicon Valley and The New World Order.” went on sale last week.
Not only is he a successful investor and technologist, Lee is a powerful speaker and writer. He knows the value of a soundbite, turn of phrase and provocative statement.
In one passage from his book, Lee described how AI will shake up society and the world's power structure. Some of his assessments may not come as welcome news to many in the United States.
"This new AI order will be particularly jolting to Americans, who have grown accustomed to a near-total dominance of the technological sphere. For as far back as many of us can remember, it was American technology companies that were pushing their products and their values on users around the globe...American companies, citizens, and politicians have forgotten what it feels like to be on the receiving end of these exchanges, a process that often feels akin to 'technological colonization.'"
During the drive that took Lee to his speaking engagements, first at the headquarters of the Asia Society Northern California and then to the San Francisco Yacht Club, Lee said, "I try to be truthful."
The reception Lee receives when he makes public appearances is startling.
It's not everyday that a technologist can draw hundreds of people on a Friday evening, but the crowds that come to see Lee are large and enthusiastic.
They also come from a wide range of ages, backgrounds and business sectors.
Sure, the tech sector has salivated for a long time over AI. But the possibility of creating machines with intelligence similar to humans in the not-so-distant future has begun to fire imaginations among the general public.
Money is pouring into AI and Lee is attracting his share.
Following Lee's talk at the Asia Society, located in the shadow of San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid building, the former head of Morgan Stanley’s Asia investment-banking business showed up in the speaker's lounge.
“Hey, Kai-Fu,” said Jack Wadsworth, who is now an investor. “Is Sinovation (Ventures, the name of Lee’s VC firm) looking for any money.”
“Why?” Lee replied, smiling. “You have some?”
A kid asked for Lee's autograph and something funny happened.
Instead of giving Lee a book to sign, the kid, who did not appear to be Chinese, handed Lee a blank piece of paper and asked him to sign.
"I joked and said 'I didn’t write that book,'" Lee said. "Then he came back and wanted my signature in Chinese. And I said 'Do you read Chinese?' And he said he did."
When the boy said that, Lee look stunned and laughed.
"I said 'I was going to trick you and write something nasty, but since you read Chinese I’ll actually sign."
Lee says that the iconic TV news program '60 Minutes' will soon a broadcast a segment on him titled 'The Oracle of AI.'
Lee said that the 60 Minutes crew wanted a shot that illustrated the size of the crowds that attend his appearances.
He said that was easy. At every conference, security is needed to make sure that speakers aren't mobbed by business-development people looking to hand out cards or entrepreneurs wishing to have a noted technologist sign their business plan.
He told the producers at 60 Minutes "Just call off the security and you'll have the crowd."
On the same day that Lee was signing copies of his new book, Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, met privately in Washington DC with GOP lawmakers.
It was pointed out to Lee that Pichai probably wasn't having as good a time with the Congressmen as he was having greeting his fans.
Lee did not comment. No doubt, the Congressmen asked Pichai about Google’s controversial plans to possibly relaunch a search engine in China.
Lee resigned as president of Google China in September 2009, four months before the company pulled out of the country in 2010. Google said that it had been hacked from inside China and Google's management was no longer willing to censor information.
He said that when he quit, he had no idea that Google would soon stop operating in China. But he also suggested that Google had more reasons to withdraw than the censoring imposed on it by the Chinese government.
'I lost all my smartest people to the entrepreneurial energy (in China),' Lee said.
Lee said that leading up to Google's departure from China, the unit was experiencing a brain drain.
"I’ll be specific because you’re a very straight forward guy," Lee said. "I lost all my smartest people to the entrepreneurial energy. It was clear that the future is on the other side.
"Frankly, venture capital firms in China were poaching," Lee continued. "VCs were saying, hey XYZ, if you leave Google you can start a company. What would you do? And (XYZ) would say 'An e-commerce company.' And the VC would say 'If you leave, I would fund you with this much money, and this is the kind of e-commerce company I think you could build. Why don’t you do some research on this.' So, a lot of VCs were enticing people to leave."
Lee said he left Google for the same reason.
Lee suggested that Google didn't let him compete in the same anything-goes manner as Chinese entrepreneurs, whom he calls 'gladiators.'
Asked if he himself was a gladiator entrepreneur, Lee said: "As much as a multinational head can be. A Gladiator in my book represents the kind of do-whatever-it-takes-to-succeed person.
"Now, there was clearly lines I could not cross," Lee continued. "I did not cross them. But within all the boundaries of what I could do and yes, some gray boundaries, I did the best I could to get as much (market) share for Google."
Lee has said that US companies don't understand the Chinese market. Lee was asked whether Google and then CEO Eric Schmidt failed to understand? Did they provide him with the resources he needed to succeed?
"I think Eric was my big champion," Lee said. "I think he supported what I did. I basically got the resources I needed from HQ. There were constraints. Had there been no constraints Google would have been even more successful but those constraints were put in place to protect the values of the company."
Asked to specify the kind of restraints he was referring, Lee declined. As he has done numerous times in recent weeks, Lee said that he didn't think Google will succeed in China should it return.
'Where do you draw the line on censorship?' Lee asked
That was his response when asked if the US government should take a hard stance on censorship and freedom of speech in China and other countries.
"In Germany, they censor Nazi information. Is that not censorship?" Lee asked. "In Indonesia and India there are different levels of censorship. It’s kind of a gray question. I’m not defending censorship. I’m just saying that if you say 'If you do any censorship then you’re evil,' I think that’s an unfair statement. I’m not saying what China is doing is right or wrong, I'm saying it’s not that simple."
Lee made clear that he has some fond memories and forged some important relationships while working for Google. When Lee resigned from Microsoft to take the job as president of Google China, Microsoft sued saying Lee had violated his non-compete clause.
Lee said he is very grateful to David Drummond, chief legal officer for Alphabet, Google's parent company, for helping him navigate that situation. Not only was Lee allowed to work for Google but according to reports, no money changed hands.
Lee worked for Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and the Google triumvirate. Does China have entrepreneurs of that caliber?
Lee said that he believes that if the best entrepreneurs in China and Silicon Valley were each given $5 million, dropped in a foreign land and were forced to start from scratch "I don't think Silicon Valley would win.
Well the way you would win is if you could send a Steve Jobs," he continued. "But you've got to find your Steve Jobs."
