Tang Xiaoou, founder of Chinese artificial intelligence pioneer SenseTime, died of an unspecified disease on Friday, the company said in a statement on Saturday.

Tang, who was also a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, launched in 2014 SenseTime, which was initially known for its facial recognition technology and later expanded into more areas such as self-driving technology.

SenseTime, which did not list Tang's age, said "Professor Tang's wisdom, passion and endless exploration of science will always inspire us to stay true to our original aspirations and forge ahead."