(Yicai Global) Sept. 7 -- Ye Jieping, the chief of Didi Chuxing’s artificial intelligence lab, is to depart the Chinese ride-hailing giant after having served five years with the company that drove Uber from its home turf.

Zhang Bo, chief technology officer at Beijing-based Didi Chuxing, will take on the added responsibility of heading up AI Labs, news portal Sina Finance reported today.

Ye, an expert in machine learning, joined Didi Chuxing in 2015 and led the team that upgraded it from grabbing client orders to a model based on the smart dispatch of orders. He was also seen as a key figure in helping Didi push Uber out of China.

“It has been the most rewarding five years of my career,” Ye said. “The discussions I had with the company’s Big Data team when I returned to China from overseas five years ago made me see machine learning’s endless potential and imagination in the transportation sector.”

Speaking of his future plans, Ye said he intends to explore the possibilities of AI in other fields.

He is a professor at the University of Michigan, a scholar at the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, specializing in Big Data technology, machine learning and data mining. Ye is also an expert in the application of AI in sectors such as smart travel and biomedicines.

Editor: Peter Thomas