Edward Conard

Top Ten New York Times Bestselling Author

  • “…a comprehensive explanation of the modern economy.” - Julian Robertson, Founder, Tiger Management
  • “…a fresh argument for the productive value of inequality.” - David Autor, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • “…reminds us that inequality sends a signal of what society lacks most, in America’s case, entrepreneurship and risk taking.” - Lawrence Lindsey, CEO, The Lindsey Group, former Director of the National Economic Council
  • “…a very valuable contribution.” - Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and director of the National Economic Council, president emeritus, Harvard University
  • “…a must-read for serious students of economic policy.” - Glenn Hubbard, Dean, Columbia Business School, and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
  • “…a comprehensive explanation of the modern economy.” - Julian Robertson, Founder, Tiger Management
  • “Unintended Consequences represents the most cogent and persuasive analysis of the Financial Crisis to date.” - Andrei Shleifer, 1999 John Bates Clark Medal Winner
  • “Unintended Consequences is far smarter and more thought-provoking than most economics written for the general public” - Greg Mankiw, Harvard University, Former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors
  • “…reminds us that inequality sends a signal of what society lacks most, in America’s case, entrepreneurship and risk taking.” - Lawrence Lindsey, CEO, The Lindsey Group, former Director of the National Economic Council
  • “A full-throated defense of economic dynamism.” - The Wall Street Journal
  • “Unintended Consequences is full of substance, it is one of the must-read books of the year, and once I finish it I will be giving it a second read through right away.” - Tyler Cowen, Professor, George Mason University
  • “…a very valuable contribution.” - Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and director of the National Economic Council, president emeritus, Harvard University
Upside of Inequality Oxford Unintended Consequences

AI Summary. Elite artificial intelligence researchers have left US firms including Google DeepMind and OpenAI for Chinese companies such as ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba. Three China- and San Francisco-based headhunters say they relocated more than 30 US-based researchers to China over 12 months, up from low single digits the prior year.

Zijing Wu Financial Times
Date Posted:

Several high-profile AI researchers have left Google and OpenAI for Chinese firms in recent months. A Tsinghua University official said ~20% of engineering graduates apply to PhDs in the US, down from ~50% prior to the pandemic.

Is China drawing top AI researchers home from the US?

Core argument: Three AI-focused headhunters based in China and San Francisco say they helped hire and relocate more than 30 US-based researchers to China over the past 12 months, up from a low single-digit figure a year earlier.

Over the past 12 months, a wave of elite engineering and scientific talent has returned from the US to Chinese shores. Wu Yonghui, who gave up a senior role at Google DeepMind to lead ByteDance’s push into next-generation large language models, and Yao Shunyu, who left OpenAI to anchor Tencent’s AI development, have returned in the past year. Other returnees include Roger Jiang, a senior scientist who left OpenAI to found his own robotics start-up in Shenzhen, and Zhou Hao, a researcher Alibaba poached from Google DeepMind to refine models. Three AI-focused headhunters based in China and San Francisco say they helped hire and relocate more than 30 US-based researchers to China in the past 12 months, versus a low single-digit a year earlier.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. Three AI-focused headhunters based in China and San Francisco say they helped hire and relocate more than 30 US-based researchers to China over the past 12 months, up from a low single-digit figure a year earlier.
  2. Wu Yonghui gave up a senior role at Google DeepMind to lead ByteDance's push into next-generation large language models, and Yao Shunyu left OpenAI to anchor Tencent's AI development.
  3. Roger Jiang, a senior scientist, left OpenAI to found a robotics start-up in Shenzhen, and Alibaba poached researcher Zhou Hao from Google DeepMind to refine models.

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  • China and the Future Of Science — China graduates about 5x as many medical and biomedical students as the US each year, 7x as many engineers, and nearly double the number of science and engineering PhDs, while one-sixth to one-fifth of US science and engineering graduates are themselves Chinese. One study found returning Chinese scientists lead-author 2.5x more papers than peers who stay in the US.
  • Litigation Nation, Engineering Empire — Regrouping US college majors to match Chinese disciplines yields a 2:1 ratio of science and engineering to humanities and social sciences, the same ratio as in China. The author argues America's building slowdown reflects structural economic shifts—urbanization reached 70% by 1960 and 85% by 2020, shifting needs toward maintenance—rather than a lawyerly culture.
  • The Global AI Talent Tracker 2.0 — The United States remains the leading destination for the world's most elite AI talent and hosts 60% of top AI institutions. China's share of top AI researchers working domestically rose from 29% in 2019 to 47% in 2022, and India retained one-fifth of its top AI researchers in 2022 versus nearly none in 2019.