For artificial intelligence powering chatbots like ChatGPT, China trails behind the United States. However, in cultivating the minds propelling a new wave of humanoid technologies, China is making significant strides ahead.
Recent research indicates that China has, by certain metrics, surpassed the United States as the primary producer of AI talent globally, with nearly half of the world’s top AI researchers originating from China.
In contrast, approximately 18 percent hail from undergraduate institutions in the United States. These findings come from a study conducted by MacroPolo, a think tank affiliated with the Paulson Institute, aimed at fostering constructive relations between the United States and China.
This represents a significant surge for China, which accounted for around one-third of the world’s top AI talent just three years ago. In comparison, the United States has remained relatively constant.
The study, based on the backgrounds of researchers whose papers were presented at the 2022 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), underscores China’s growing influence in the field of AI, particularly in neural networks, which underpin recent advancements in generative AI.
The imbalance in talent has been evolving over the past decade. Throughout much of the 2010s, the United States benefited from an influx of China’s brightest minds pursuing doctoral degrees at American universities, with many choosing to remain in the country.
However, the research indicates a reversal of this trend, with an increasing number of Chinese researchers opting to stay in China.
The outcome of this dynamic carries significant geopolitical implications as China and the United States vie for supremacy in AI—a technology with the potential to enhance productivity, fortify industries, and fuel innovation—placing researchers among the most geopolitically influential groups globally.
While this may attract Chinese researchers, escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington could dissuade some from pursuing opportunities abroad.
China’s success in nurturing AI talent can be attributed in part to substantial investments in AI education. Since 2018, the country has established over 2,000 undergraduate AI programs, including more than 300 at its premier universities.
However, these programs primarily focus on AI applications in industry and manufacturing, rather than the generative AI technologies dominating the American AI industry.
While the United States has spearheaded breakthroughs in AI, including the development of remarkably humanlike chatbots, a significant portion of this work has been carried out by researchers educated in China.
Notably, Chinese-born researchers now constitute 38 percent of the top AI researchers working in the United States, compared to 37 percent of Americans.
However, it also raises questions for policymakers, who must navigate the delicate balance between countering Chinese espionage and fostering the continued influx of top Chinese computer engineers into the United States.
Despite challenges, the United States remains the global epicenter of the AI world, with the majority of Chinese nationals who complete doctorates in the country opting to stay.
Nevertheless, the U.S. lead has begun to erode, with the country hosting approximately 42 percent of the world’s top AI talent, down from 59 percent three years ago, according to the research.
