Korean Media: Half of the World's Top AI Talents Are Chinese, South Korea Only Speaks in Empty Rhetoric!
On August 19, the Korean media outlet "Seoul Economic Daily" published an article stating that according to an analysis, of the top 100 artificial intelligence (AI) scientists globally, 50 are Chinese, and there are another 10 Chinese working in the United States, meaning 60% of the world's top AI scientists are Chinese.
This fact was derived by the China Investment Promotion Office of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization based on the number of citations of academic papers from nearly 200,000 researchers around the world over the past 10 years (from 2014 to 2024).
China is focusing its efforts on AI as a national strategic area. According to institutions analyzing AI industry competitiveness such as the Stanford AI Index and British Tortoise Media, China ranks second in overall AI capability, only half of the US. However, seeing these analytical data, the US is also feeling nervous.
This is particularly shocking for South Korea, as it is a country with high AI capabilities, yet no one appears in the list of the top 100 AI scientists. In the 2024 AI competitiveness assessment released by Tortoise Media, South Korea ranked sixth, competing with Singapore, the UK, and France, which ranked third, fourth, and fifth respectively. South Korea's goal is to narrow the gap with the second place and become the leader of the third group.
These data indicate that instead of narrowing the gap with China, South Korea is becoming another "wall" after the United States. If there is no breakthrough in talent cultivation, the goal can only be empty talk. In the evaluation by Tortoise Media, South Korea ranked sixth overall, but due to insufficient talent cultivation, it dropped to 13th place.
Not to mention AI development, South Korea is being pointed out as a country losing AI talents. According to the Stanford AI Index, South Korea is the fifth country with the most serious loss of AI talents globally. According to the "World Talent Ranking" published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), South Korea ranked 47th in the satisfaction ranking of overseas high-skilled talents in 2023.
In this situation, South Korea needs to attract overseas talents, but it cannot attract them due to lower salary systems compared to competitors, difficulties in settlement conditions such as language and culture, and lack of research autonomy.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1840860183960580/
Statement: The article represents the personal views of the author.