Chinese tech firms scramble to recruit top AI talent amid short supply

A screenshot showing the Kimi chatbot from Moonshot AI. Photo: Weibo

For every five new AI jobs in China, there are only two qualified workers available in the market, a study showed

Chinese tech firms are scrambling to hire more artificial intelligence (AI) talent, especially anyone with a track record of success, amid a shortage of top AI brains in the country, according to local media reports and industry data.

Moonshot AI, one of the country's top AI start-ups, has recruited Tan Xu, the former principal research manager for the Machine Learning Group at Microsoft Research Asia. The Beijing-based company called Tan the "industry's top audio technology and machine learning expert".

"[Tan] will work with the team to research and develop more advanced and useful intelligent assistants for Kimi users," the company said in a statement on Friday, referring to its Kimi AI chatbot.

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Other Chinese firms are ramping up similar efforts to enlist top industry experts to help build rival services. TikTok parent ByteDance is undertaking an aggressive recruitment programme targeting talent from AI start-ups such as 01.AI, co-founded by former Google China head Lee Kai-fu, and Beijing-based Seq-AI, according to local media reports.

ByteDance's latest high-profile hire is Zhou Chang, an AI scientist from Alibaba Group Holding, according to local media. Zhou was one of the key researchers behind Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen large language model (LLM). ByteDance declined to comment. Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At the same time, China's top AI talent has been starting their own ventures, or joining academia. In May, Fu Ruiji, a tech leader from Kuaishou's Knowledge Graph and LLM projects, announced he would leave China's No 2 short video app to "prepare for an AI start-up project", while Yang Hongxia, who was involved in research and development of LLMs at ByteDance, has taken up a role at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The poaching of AI experts highlights the short supply of such talent in China. For every five new AI jobs in China, there are only two qualified workers available in the market, a study published late last year by career social network site Maimai showed.

A McKinsey report published last year estimated that by 2030, demand in China for professionals skilled in AI product development will increase sixfold, rising from one million to six million individuals, as companies strive to tap into the potential value the technology can deliver.

Local and overseas universities and existing top-tier talent are projected to supply only about two million of the AI professionals needed by 2030, leaving a shortfall of four million, the consultancy said.

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