Police arrest man after Baidu boss drenched on stage
Chinese police have arrested a man in connection with an incident that saw someone pour a bottle of water over the head of search giant Baidu’s chief executive.
Robin Li was left soaked during a keynote address at Baidu’s annual Create conference in Beijing yesterday after a man stepped on stage to empty the bottle over him.
Li tried to shake the water out of his hair and asked the man “What’s your problem?” before continuing with his speech on artificial intelligence.
“As you can see, all kinds of unexpected things may happen on our way forward in AI development,” Li then said, according to CNN.
“But our determination won’t change going forward. We firmly believe AI will change everyone’s life.”
Baidu police later told Beijing police about the incident, according to Reuters.
Authorities then identified a man in connection with the incident and put him into administrative detention, which can last for up to five days.
Police accused the man of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, Reuters reported.
Baidu – Google’s equivalent in China – is the biggest native online search engine but has drawn criticism over apparent problems concerning searches.
A student with cancer died after seeking a treatment advertised on Baidu in 2016, while an article criticising Baidu’s prioritisation of linking to its own publishing platform in search results went viral earlier this year.
While Baidu has a 70 per cent stake in the Chinese search engine market, rivals Tencent and Alibaba have outperformed it lately.
Baidu made its first loss since going public in 2005 in its quarter ending March, losing 327m yuan (£37.8m).
In contrast it recorded a 6.7bn profit during the same period in 2018.
Main image credit: Getty