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Yichao “Peak” Ji, recognized as one of MIT Technology Review’s 2025 Innovators Under 35, is spearheading the global expansion of Manus, an innovative AI agent developed by Butterfly Effect. Ji, serving as the Chinese startup’s chief scientist, witnessed Manus achieve widespread attention after a viral demonstration showcasing its capabilities. Unlike a typical chatbot, Manus intelligently decomposes tasks into manageable steps and utilizes cloud-based virtual machines to execute them autonomously.

Based in Singapore, Ji brings extensive technical expertise to Manus’s product and infrastructure development. His prior successes include the creation of the Mammoth browser and Magi search engine. Backed by funding from US venture capital firm Benchmark, Ji and his team are now focused on scaling Manus across Western platforms and leveraging open-source technologies to reach a wider global audience.