How Yichao “Peak” Ji became a global AI app hitmaker

Yichao "Peak" Ji is one of the 2025 innovators of with Technology Review under the age of 35. Fulfill the rest of this year's award winners. When Yichao Ji - also known as "Peak" - drive in a start video for Manus in March, he did not expect it to be viral. The 32-year-old spoke in fluent English and presented the AI ​​agent, who was built by the Chinese start-up butterfly effect, where he acts as chief scientist. The video was not a detailed production - it was staged by co -founder Zhang Tao and shot in a corner of her office in Beijing. But something about JIS Delivery and the vision behind the product cut through the noise. The product, which is still available early preview only through invitation codes, spreads into the world within a few days on the Chinese Internet. Within a week after his debut, Manus had attracted a waiting list of around 2 million people. At first glance, Manus works like most chatbots: Users can ask him questions in a chat window. In addition to providing answers, however, it can also perform tasks (for example, an apartment that fulfills defined criteria within a certain budget). This is done by breaking down the tasks into steps and then using a cloud-based virtual machine equipped with a browser and other tools to carry them out to carry out, filling out forms, etc. Ji is the technical core of the team. Now located in Singapore, he leads the product and infrastructure development while the company drives its global expansion. Despite his relative youth, Ji has experience in construction products over a decade that combines technical complexity with real user -friendliness. This brought him credibility with engineers and investors - and put him at the top of an increasing class of Chinese technologists with AI products and global ambitions. The serial manufacturer the son of a professor and an IT professional, Ji, moved to Boulder, Colorado, for his father's visiting scientist at the age of four and returned to Beijing in second class. His flowing English distinguished him early, but it was a robotics team from the primary school that aroused his interest in programming. In the high school he directed the computer club, teaching himself how to build operating systems and be inspired by Bill Gates, Linux and Open Source Culture. He describes himself as a lifelong Apple supporter and it was Apple's start of the App Store in 2008, which lit his passion for development. In 2010, Ji created the mammoth browser as a high school in the second year, a customizable iPhone browser from third-party provider. It quickly became the most downloaded browser of third-party providers developed by a person in China, and brought him the MacWorld Asia main prize in 2011. The International Tech website Appadvice called it a product that “defines the way you search the Internet. At the age of 20, it was on the cover of the Forbes Magazine and created his list of“ 30 under 30 ”. Meet the rest of this year's innovators under the age of 35. During his teenage years, Ji developed several other iOS apps, including a budgeting tool for Hasbro's monopoly game, which was sold well -until it enabled a legal notification for the use of the brand name. But Ji was not abolished in the technology with a multinational legal team. If at all, he says, it has sharpened its instincts for both the product and the risk. In 2012, Ji started his own company, Peak Labs, and later led the development of Magi, a search engine. The tool extracted from all over the web to answer queries similar to today's AI-driven search, but operated by a custom voice model. Magi was popular briefly and took millions of users in the first month, but the acceptance of consumers did not last. However, it sparked the company's interest and Ji adapted it for B2B use before it sold in 2022. Ai acumen manus would be his next act - and a more ambitious one. His co -founders Zhang Tao and Xiao Hong complement the technical core of Ji with product knowledge, storytelling and organizational ver. Both Xiao and Ji are serial entrepreneurs who have been supported several times by the risk capital company Zhenfund. Together they represent the type of long -term cooperation and international ambition, which is increasingly defines the next entrepreneurial wave of China. Juliana Tan people who have worked with Ji describe him as a clear thinker, a quick speaker and a tireless, deeply committed building contractor who thinks in systems, products and user streams. He represents a new generation of Chinese technologists: equally in home coding or in pitch meetings, fluent both buildings and branding. It is also a product of open source culture and remains an active participant whose projects regularly attract attention and Github stars developer communities from Across. With new financial resources, Ji and his team manus bring to the wider world, move operations outside of China to Singapore and actively aim at consumers around the world. The product is based on the US infrastructure and is based on technologies such as Claude-Sonnet, Microsoft Azure and open source tools such as browsers. It is a clearly global setup: a KI agent developed by a Chinese team, which was driven by western platforms and designed for international users. That is not accidental. Today it reflects the more fluid nature of the AI ​​entrepreneur, in which talent, infrastructure and ambition move across borders as quickly as the technology itself. For JI, the goal is not just a global company to build a legacy. "I hope Manus is the last product I will ever build," says Ji. "Because if I ever have a different wild idea - (I'll just get it) leave it manus!"