Rakuten AI Boss Diverges From Big Tech in Prioritizing Low Cost

Rakuten Group Inc. is expanding its AI team under the stewardship of a Google veteran and building models with a focus on cost efficiency.

Ting Cai, now three years into his tenure at the head of the e-commerce pioneer’s artificial intelligence team, has the task of creating AI systems that would augment the company’s many businesses and support the handling of commercial transactions at a minimal cost. He oversees a team that’s grown to 1,000 this year and has a battery of “thousands” of Nvidia Corp. chips to work with.

Ting Cai

Source: Rakuten Group

Tokyo-based Rakuten is wrestling with a struggling mobile ...