China struggles to quench its thirst for AI talent amid ChatGPT frenzy, as nation lags US in top brains
- While China’s demand for AI workers has jumped threefold from five years ago, only 0.1 per cent of the nation’s talent have a doctoral degree
- As of the end of 2021, China had 232 top research experts focusing on AI, while the US had 1,146, or more than half of the world’s total
Chinese companies are scrambling for top talent in generative artificial intelligence (AI) in a country that is significantly lacking in such workers when compared to the United States, as domestic firms race to launch their own ChatGPT-style services.
China’s demand for AI talent has surged threefold from five years ago, according to data compiled recently by Liepin, a Chinese recruitment platform. Roles involving pre-training models, conversational bots, and AI-generated content (AIGC) are in especially high demand.
A search on two local recruitment platforms using keywords, including “pre-trained models” and “natural language processing”, showed that the country’s Big Tech companies and start-ups are both offering generous packages to attract the right applicant.
One job posting, for example, offered a monthly salary of 800,000 yuan (US$116,000) for a role related to natural language processing.
“Since late last year, we have been getting increasing inquiries from local tech firms looking for talent working in large (language) models and AIGC, and some are willing to offer fat pay cheques,” Max Xiao Mafeng, co-founder and CEO at recruitment agency TTC Consultancy, said. “The inquiries have been pouring in, so we had to set up a new division earlier this year to focus solely on this area.”