(Yicai Global) Sept. 18 -- Alibaba Group Holding has persuaded two leading experts on video compression and computer vision to join the tech giant's artificial intelligence development center for salaries reported to be at least USD1 million each.

Chen Ying will be responsible for AI and edge computing, focusing on smart homeware visuals and Internet of Things chips, while Tan Ping will oversee computer vision, with an emphasis on 3D modeling and holographic technologies, The Paper reported today.

Alibaba AI Labs is part of the famed Damo Academy, Hangzhou-based Alibaba's USD15 billion high-tech research institute. Its two new hires show that Alibaba is increasingly placing attention on visuals after rolling out many audio-based AI technologies. Alibaba AI Labs launched its first product, the Tmall Genie X1 voice assistant, two summers ago. 

Chen, a former principal engineer at Qualcomm, led the development of advanced video coding, a compression standard, at the San Diego-based chip giant. He was the first Chinese employee to be rewarded with the firm's intellectual property achievement award.

Tan, associate professor at the School of Computing Science in the Simon Fraser University, has mainly studied structure from motion, a technique to create 3D images from 2D ones. 

Chen and Tan will work with a team that includes Miffy Chen, head of AI Labs, Nie Zaiqing, principal engineer, Li Mingyang, senior algorithm engineer, and Li Jianye, principal engineer.

Editor: Emmi Laine