Shanghai will step up efforts to attract AI talent

AI talent will enjoy special policies on household registration and long-term residence in Shanghai as part of the city’s latest move to develop the artificial intelligence industry, government officials and AI companies said.

The Shanghai government will declare details of the new policies on talent introduction and household registration in September, when the city holds the 2018 World Artificial Intelligence Conference.

AI enterprises also requested the government settle foreign technician’s identity and residence problems, improve educational mechanisms and enhance protection of intellectual property rights and patents, 11 AI firms said in a government-held conference recently.

The talent shortage gap in Shanghai’s artificial intelligence field is large. Government and companies have to make an effort to retain and attract talent, said Wen Hao, co-founder of Yuncong Developmental LTC.

The government has started to settle foreign technicians’ identity problems when they come to work in Shanghai, which will help AI firms attract top-level overseas talent, Wang Xinlei, chief strategy officer of the Shenlan Tech LTC said.

Research and research fund money should be spent on "upstream techniques" rather than the "downstream" industry chain, which will help China to obtain its own patents and IPRs (intellectual property rights), according to SenseTime, which just finished raising US$620 million in May.

All 11 AI companies will attend the 2018 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in September. The event, which attracts top experts and senior executives from the industry, will be held between September 17 and 19 in Shanghai.

Output of the city’s AI industry was 70 billion yuan (US$10.5 billion) in 2017, the city government said at a previous conference.