Former DeepMind Director Joins Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Cao Liangliang, a former director at Google DeepMind, has been appointed chair professor of data science and AI at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, effective June 29, 2026. The move brings a leader with experience in multimodal AI systems from Google, Apple, and OPPO to Hong Kong, potentially boosting applied research and industry collaboration.

PolyU appointed Cao Liangliang as chair professor of data science and AI effective June 29, 2026 , after senior research roles at Google DeepMind , Google, Apple and OPPO, according to PolyU and SCMP. The move matters for practitioners because Cao's production background spans Gemini , Project Astra, Google Cloud Vision, Google Speech and Apple Intelligence, giving PolyU a faculty leader with experience across cloud, on-device and multimodal AI systems. Cao's personal site says he returned to Hong Kong after two decades in the United States, framing the hire as a bridge between MMLab-trained academic research and frontier-model product engineering. The practical signal is not a new model release, but a talent move that can influence applied research, graduate training and industry collaboration in Hong Kong.