Think Tank: Nearly 40% of Artificial Intelligence Experts in the U.S. Come from China

Think Tank: Nearly 40% of Artificial Intelligence Experts in the U.S. Come from China

(Translated from Chinese to English by Cici AI app)

https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/world/story20250217-5889760

2025-02-17

By Mai Ke Xin

Senior International News Translator

Lianhe Zaobao

makcs@sph.com.sg

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Think Tank: Nearly 40% of US AI Experts Are From China

 

(Tokyo) -  A US think tank analysis reveals that the US and China are fiercely competing in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), but the US maintains its leading position thanks to the key role played by Chinese students who have gone to the US.

 

According to a report by the MacroPolo think tank within the Paulson Institute in Chicago, nearly 40% of top AI researchers in US companies and research institutions are from Chinese universities. This percentage even surpasses the number of American graduates, including renowned Stanford University professor and World Labs co-founder Fei-Fei Li, and Microsoft AI Chief Scientist Li Deng.

 

The report states that in 2019, 27% of top AI experts in the US came from Chinese universities. This figure rose to 38% in 2022, exceeding the 37% from American universities. These researchers appear to have completed their undergraduate studies in China before pursuing postgraduate degrees in the US, ultimately finding employment there.

 

Masashi Sugiyama, director of the Integrative Research Center for Innovative Intelligence at the RIKEN Institute in Japan, said, "Clearly, China has a significant number of talented young researchers contributing to the development of AI research in US companies and institutions."

 

However, the US remains dominant in AI research. The 2024 Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry were awarded to AI-related research, with most of the winners from the US.

 

NeurIPS is adopting more Chinese papers, Tsinghua and Peking University are among the top ten. MacroPolo conducted a background investigation of the authors of papers published at NeurIPS, the world's most prestigious AI academic conference, in 2022. It found that seven of the top ten institutions where these AI experts belong are in the US, including Google and Stanford University. China is close behind, with NeurIPS adopting more Chinese papers, with Tsinghua University and Peking University among the top ten.

 

The report believes that if the Chinese government and businesses adopt the "returning scholars policy" and "Thousand Talents Program" after the 1990s to attract overseas talent back to China, they might be able to achieve greater development in the AI field.

 

However, the US may be able to maintain its leading position for the foreseeable future, as major IT companies and leading research institutions are located in the US, making it still attractive for Chinese experts. MacroPolo's analysis shows that about 80% of foreign PhD graduates choose to stay in the US for work.

 

As competition intensifies, the differences between China and the US are deepening. Around 2022, the US began restricting exports of advanced semiconductors and other products to China.

 

Chinese AI company DeepSeek recently launched a low-cost AI assistant, its open-source model DeepSeek-R1 shocked the global tech industry and attracted the attention of the US government, including the type of chips it uses.  Reportedly, the US government is investigating whether DeepSeek is using controlled chips and if the chips are being re-exported to China through multiple countries. Calls for strengthened export controls are increasing within the US.

 

According to a 2024 ranking report of research institutions by scientific journal publisher Springer Nature, Chinese institutions tend towards independent research rather than international collaboration. While China's individual research output is growing rapidly, its global collaboration is relatively weak. The report points out that innovative research often relies on cross-border collaboration. Despite China having many talented researchers working in the US, it lags behind the US and the UK in establishing research collaboration frameworks.