Craig S. Smith (born October 13, 1955, in Spokane, Washington) is an American journalist and former executive of '' The New York Times''. Until January, 2000, he wrote for '' The Wall Street Journal'', most notably covering the rise of the religious movement Falun Gong in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. He joined '' The New York Times'' as Shanghai bureau chief in 2000 and wrote extensively about the practice of harvesting organs from executed prisoners in

. In 2002 he moved to Paris. He has reported for the ''Times'' in more than forty countries, from Iraq to Israel to Kyrgyzstan. He has covered several conflicts, including the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the 2003 war in Iraq and the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese war. He also covered the 2005 unrest in the French banlieues. In 2008, he joined Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li Tzar Kai's financial news venture as executive editor and subsequently became senior vice president of Li's Pacific Century Group. He rejoined The New York Times in late 2011 as China managing director, founding and running the New York Times' first foreign language site, cn.nytimes.com. In late 2016 he returned to the U.S. as a writer at large for the Times, focused on Canadian stories. He retired from the Times in 2018 and now writes for the Times and other publications about artificial intelligence. He is a

special Government employee Under the federal law of the United States, the term "special Government employee" (SGE) refers to an advisor, expert or consultant who is appointed to work with federal government. The role of special Government employees is defined in 18 U.S.C. § ...

for the

National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) was an independent commission of the United States of America established in 2018 to make recommendations to the President and Congress to "advance the development of artificial ...

and is host of the podcas
Eye on AI
which is rated number 2 among AI-related podcasts by Feedspot.Top 10 AI Podcasts & Radio You Must Follow in 2020
/ref>

Personal life

Smith received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University in 1979 with a joint major in English literature and a master's in Western philosophy. He also earned a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1987. His father was an assistant general counsel of IBM. He is married to Anna Esaki, daughter of Nobel laureate Dr. Leo Esaki, and they have two sons, Sky, an actor, and True, a music executive.

References

Living people The New York Times writers The Wall Street Journal people 1955 births Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni {{US-journalist-1950s-stub