AI pioneer Andrew Ng wants to modernize manufacturing

The back story: Ng ran Google's early AI effort, Google Brain, before helping China's Baidu ratchet up its AI effort. Ng told reporters that he likes being early to a space before it's conventional wisdom.

"I feel like in my life I've often done a lot of things before it was obvious it was a good thing to do," he said.

My thought bubble: Ng's chops in the field are second to none, but it's a bit unclear how a small team can effectively work with a large number of companies given how massive such operations tend to be. Ng says that while Landing.ai does custom work for each client, there are reusable elements. He says the company will be bigger a year from now than it is today.