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May 22 (NBD) -- Baidu Chief Operating Officer (COO) Lu Qi, a former executive at Microsoft, explained the reason for his resignation at an internal meeting held on Monday, saying that he wanted to spend more time with his family and would cherish his experience of working at the company.

Lu Qi, who joined Baidu as the search engine giant's president and COO in January last year, said Friday he was leaving the role in July due to personal and family reasons. Lu will stay on the company's board of directors and serve as the personal advisor to Robin Li, Baidu founder and CEO. Baidu stocks dropped on the news.

During his time in Baidu, Lu was mainly responsible for AI development while Robin Li took charge of news feed ads business. His role in the company allowed Robin Li to focus on the overall strategic course.

It's been revealed in the internal email of Baidu that general managers of AI business groups would report directly to Robin Li after Lu left.

Lu expressed his support for Baidu and Robin Li at the meeting, adding that he would help advance their shared dream and mission of "making the complex world simpler through technology". Artificial intelligence (AI) has the ability to change the world completely, and China plus AI will be the world's biggest innovation platform, Lu believed.

Robin Li thanked Lu Qi on the same occasion for his contribution to Baidu and professionalism. Li also reiterated Baidu's strategy of "strengthening its mobile foundation and leading in AI" as well as the company value system and corporate culture would remain unchanged. The search giant would further promote an open and commercialized Apollo, Baidu's autonomous driving platform, accelerate the building of the AI-based operation system DuerOS, and improve the user experience of "search plus feed", said Li in response to concerns over Baidu's AI business after Lu left.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn