Mind-blowing Move: Microsoft’s Top AI Gurus Relocate from China to Canada’s Revolutionary Research Lab!

Microsoft is moving some of its top AI researchers from China to Canada in a move that threatens to destroy an essential training ground for the Asian country’s tech talent.

Beijing-based Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) has begun seeking visas to transfer top AI experts from the Chinese capital to its Vancouver institute, four people familiar with the plans said.

These people said the move could affect 20 to 40 employees. A person close to Microsoft said fewer Chinese staff will move to Canada this year, where the US tech giant is setting up a new lab with experts from around the world.

But people familiar with the so-called “Vancouver Plan” have described it as a response to heightened political tensions between the US and China, as well as a defensive ploy to prevent top talent from being poached by national tech groups desperate for researchers. AI to develop home versions of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Two MSRA researchers said they have received recent job offers from Chinese internet companies, but have rejected the approaches and are instead applying for visas to relocate to Canada.

“Despite Microsoft has deep ties to China, there is a risk that we have our best researchers here, especially those working in machine learning,” said one of the researchers. “There is a risk that talent will be stolen from Chinese companies or employees are harassed by the authorities. We have discussed these risks in internal meetings.”

A second Microsoft researcher, also applying for a Canadian visa, said: “Perhaps in a third country, outside the US and China, we can find the lively technology discussion of the old days.”

Microsoft said, “We are establishing a new lab in Vancouver that will be organizationally aligned with MSRA and designed to better interact with engineering teams in Vancouver. The lab will be staffed by people from other MSR labs around the world, including in China.

Any decision to relocate top AI researchers risks drawing the ire of Beijing, which has been trying to lure high-tech Chinese researchers working overseas to the mainland through generous grants and prestigious teaching posts.

Founded by Taiwanese computer scientist Lee Kai-Fu, MSRA has been a major training center for Chinese tech talent. Its roster of star alumni includes Alibaba chief technology officer Wang Jian, SenseTime head Xu Li, and AI Megvii group head Yin Qi.

“MSRA’s contribution to TO THE it was phenomenal,” said a technical consultant in China who previously worked with Microsoft. “He has been in the field for a long time. China”.

Microsoft has been in China for more than three decades. It has maintained a strong presence in the country, even as other Western tech groups, including Google, eBay, Facebook and Uber, have been forced out of competition or regulation.

Microsoft has developed popular localized products, including its flagship Office and Windows software packages and the Bing search engine.

According to a company WeChat post in September, Microsoft had 9,000 employees in China, more than 80 percent of whom were software engineers or R&D workers. The same post announced plans to hire an additional 1,000 employees in the country.

But much of the engineering talent in China works on global products, which could be increasingly problematic for the US firm if ties between Beijing and Washington fray further. A person close to the company said it is possible that some of these talented engineers will also be moved out of China in the future.

LinkedIn, the Microsoft-owned group, laid off staff at its China office in May announcing it was shutting down InCareer, the short-time job application site for Chinese users that had replaced the professional social networking site in 2021.

MSRA stood out as a rare example of US-China collaboration on high-tech research. But two researchers said deteriorating relations between the two powers and rising paranoia about each other’s tech ambitions reduced their ability to collaborate with colleagues in the West and placed them under increased scrutiny from officials in China. .

The institute was criticized by Washington after the Financial Times reported which has partnered with a Chinese military-run university on research into AI that could be used for surveillance and censorship.

“Artificial intelligence has become a so-called sensitive field over the past couple of years,” said one of the Chinese Microsoft researchers applying for a Canadian visa. “Previously, being a Chinese citizen working in an American institution meant having access to great resources from both countries. The space for communication is shrinking”.

Additional reporting by Richard Waters in San Francisco