Di Li

Di Li is the CEO of Xiaoice, the AI company spun out from Microsoft, as described in multiple 5Y Capital pieces from 2021–2022 . In a 2022 5Y Pub interview, he described himself as having spent two years writing before joining Microsoft, and framed Xiaoice as "a better medium for expression" than writing or painting — a product to be raised "as a child, not a pig" . That same year, he named the company's AI-powered virtual ski coach "Guan Jun" after it contributed to China's first Olympic gold in women's aerials, calling it the system's "life" from that day forward . He has publicly characterized AI foundational research as "a long-distance run of accumulation," noting that Xiaoice's nine-year technical buildup since its 2013 emotional-computing origins allowed its later commercial expansion into automotive, finance, and AIGC verticals . In conversation with 5Y partner Zhang Fei, Li urged young people to stay close to AI and ignore advice to "lie flat," arguing the field remains in a Mendelian moment where new paradigms are still discoverable .