Tencent acquires top OpenAI talent amid China's AI push
What's the story
Tencent Holdings, a leading Chinese gaming and messaging company, has hired Yao Shunyu, a top artificial intelligence (AI) researcher from OpenAI, according to Bloomberg. The move marks one of the most high-profile transitions of talent from the US to China in the AI sector. Yao will be working on integrating AI into Tencent's services. Before joining Tencent, he had worked at OpenAI in the US, as well as Google and Princeton University, as per his LinkedIn account
Salary details
Tencent denies reports of Yao's salary package
In the ongoing race for AI talent, Tencent has offered Yao a salary of up to CNY 100 million. This move comes as tech companies like Meta have been offering hefty signing bonuses to lure employees from their competitors. However, after local media reports suggested that Yao would be joining Tencent with a pay package exceeding CNY 100 million, the company posted a screenshot of the report with "rumor" stamped across it on its WeChat account.
Academic credentials
Yao's academic background and research papers
Yao Shunyu has an impressive academic background, having graduated from Tsinghua University in China and earned a PhD in computer science from Princeton University. He has also published or co-authored around 10 research papers on AI agents. Some of his notable works include "Language Agents: From Next-Token Prediction to Digital Automation" and "Cognitive Architectures for Language Agents," as per his GitHub page.