# Zhou Bowen

Director and Chief Scientist, Shanghai AI Laboratory. TIME100 AI 2026, Thinkers. After 15 years at IBM, he now directs the Shanghai AI Lab and chairs a Chinese standards group shaping how frontier AI risks are measured. ([time.com](https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/zhou-bowen/))

- Born: 1976, Fengcheng, Jiangxi ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowen_Zhou), [baike.baidu.com](https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/Zhou%20Bowen/27545))
- Education: PhD, Electrical and computer engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, 2003; MS, Chinese Academy of Sciences; BEng, Electrical and information engineering, University of Science and Technology of China ([web.ee.tsinghua.edu.cn](https://web.ee.tsinghua.edu.cn/zhoubowen/en/index.htm), [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bowen-zhou-436b5a18))
- Career: Shanghai AI Laboratory (Director and Chief Scientist, 2024 to now); Tsinghua University (Chair Professor, 2022 to now); Frontis.ai (Founder, 2021 to now); JD.com (SVP; President of JD Cloud & AI, 2017–2021); IBM (Chief Scientist, IBM Watson Group; Director of AI Foundations, 2003–2017) ([web.ee.tsinghua.edu.cn](https://web.ee.tsinghua.edu.cn/zhoubowen/en/index.htm), [time.com](https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/zhou-bowen/), [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bowen-zhou-436b5a18), [baike.baidu.com](https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/AI%2045-Degree%20Balance%20Law/6542444))
- TIME profile: https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/zhou-bowen/
- Profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/most-influential-people-in-ai/zhou-bowen

- Spent 14 years at IBM Research in New York, rising to chief scientist of the IBM Watson Group. ([web.ee.tsinghua.edu.cn](https://web.ee.tsinghua.edu.cn/zhoubowen/en/index.htm))
- Left IBM to run cloud and AI at Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, then founded a startup and became a Tsinghua professor. ([web.ee.tsinghua.edu.cn](https://web.ee.tsinghua.edu.cn/zhoubowen/en/index.htm))
- Says less than 1% of the world's computing power goes to AI safety, with 99% used for model training. ([baike.baidu.com](https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/AI%2045-Degree%20Balance%20Law/6542444))
- In 2026 he became chair of a new working group in China's TC260 standards body on how to measure frontier AI risks. ([time.com](https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/zhou-bowen/))
- Compares advanced AI to a cute tiger cub that may devour humans once it is grown. ([news.sciencenet.cn](https://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2026/7/568469.shtm))