BEIJING ¨C A routine keynote address by Baidu Inc. chief Robin Li morphed into a public humiliation when an unidentified man jumped onstage and doused him in water.

The billionaire founder was 10 minutes into introducing an AI-powered valet parking service when a man in a black T-shirt upended a small bottle of water over his head. The Chinese internet tycoon froze in place for a few seconds, wiped his face, then plowed ahead with his speech as if nothing had happened.

¡°What¡¯s your problem?¡± Li said in English to the perpetrator, who was wearing an event pass. ¡°As everyone has just seen, there will be a variety of unexpected happenings on the road to AI,¡± said the CEO, who was headlining a Baidu artificial intelligence developers¡¯ forum in Beijing.

It¡¯s unclear who the prankster was. Li, who created China¡¯s largest search service en route to a personal fortune estimated at $8.7 billion, wrapped up his speech in about 40 minutes before departing the stage. Li is considered among the country¡¯s foremost tech pioneers, a captain of the domestic internet industry alongside the likes of Alibaba¡¯s Jack Ma and Tencent¡¯s Pony Ma.

Baidu has weathered a plethora of troubles. In 2016, a university student died after pursuing a cancer treatment he¡¯d found through Baidu¡¯s search engine, fostering mistrust of the brand. China¡¯s slowing economy is hitting the company because it¡¯s heavily reliant on the competitive advertising market. It has also lost several key senior executives in past years. In May, it posted a loss for the first time since going public in 2005.

Baidu confirmed the incident in a statement but didn¡¯t elaborate. It follows a number of similar occurrences around the world. In June, animal-rights activists rushed on stage at a conference in Las Vegas where Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos was being interviewed. A few days prior, a man snatched the microphone from California senator and presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, at a forum.