In the present era where artificial intelligence has become the focus of global technological competition, the United States is losing top talents due to its stringent immigration policies.

Recently, Kai Chen, a core researcher at OpenAI, was forced to end his 12-year career in the United States and return to Canada due to the rejection of his green card application. This incident has caused strong reactions in Silicon Valley's tech circles. Industry insiders have warned that the U.S. is destroying its leading advantage in the AI field with its own hands.

It is understood that as a key member of the GPT-4.5 development team, Kai Chen left for Vancouver, Canada last Friday (April 12). She stated on social media: “I will stay in Vancouver for an uncertain period of time, hoping to solve the problem and return to the U.S. as soon as possible.”

Noam Brown, chief scientist of OpenAI, publicly expressed on social media: "This is deeply concerning; the U.S. is expelling its best AI talents."

Insiders revealed that Kai Chen’s annual salary ranged from $620,000 to $1.56 million, making her one of the company’s key researchers. In March this year, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, publicly praised her "outstanding contributions" to the GPT-4.5 project.

Kai Chen holds degrees in engineering, computer science, and economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, focusing on AI research.

Previously, she served in multiple technology companies and co-founded Dispatch and Port Technologies.

After joining OpenAI in 2023, she participated as a technical staff member in the development of GPT-4.5 and is considered one of the core developers of GPT-4.5.

It is reported that this is not an isolated case. Over the past few months, more than 1,700 international students, especially researchers in the AI field, have encountered visa status challenges.

The immigration bureau has increasingly strict reviews of visa applications, with reasons ranging from "traffic violations" to "alleged support for Palestine."

Tech talent visas, particularly H-1B visas, are becoming harder to obtain. The immigration bureau even demands more materials and details, such as addresses and fingerprints, which has led to widespread concerns about further rising rejection rates.

Sheel Mohnot, a well-known venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, said: "We are experiencing a self-inflicted crisis of talent loss. Immigration has made irreplaceable contributions to America's AI industry; many top companies were founded by immigrants."

At the same time, the application of green cards has also tightened. Some applicants face detention and deportation risks, especially refugees and asylum seekers applying for green cards.

According to OpenAI data, in just the past year, the company applied for H-1B visas for over 80 positions, and since 2022, OpenAI has provided work visa support for over 100 positions. These positions are crucial for the U.S. AI industry.

Statistics show that the success of the U.S. AI industry depends heavily on the contributions of immigrant talents.

In the 2019 Forbes "AI 50" list, 66% of AI startups were led by immigrant founders.

In 2023, data from the National Foundation for Policy shows that 70% of U.S. AI-related graduate students come from international students. Vaswani, the inventor of the Transformer algorithm, and Zaremba, one of the founders of OpenAI, are both scientists who studied and immigrated to the U.S.

However, the current immigration policy poses a threat to this situation. The U.S. AI industry relies on the gathering of top global talents. Once the immigration system encounters problems, the competitiveness in the AI field will be directly affected.

As Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said, the world's brightest minds desire to come to the U.S., which is a rare opportunity. If missed, it may never be recovered.

Currently, the real challenge facing the U.S. AI industry is not computing power or funding, but the loss of top global talents. Policy restrictions may not "create job opportunities," but instead could cause the U.S. to lose its leadership position in the global AI race. Breakthroughs by companies like OpenAI are achieved through collaboration among teams from multiple countries.

With the tightening of immigration policies, more and more AI talents may choose to leave the U.S. and seek opportunities elsewhere.

Kai Chen's case is a warning: if the U.S. continues to manage immigration issues this way, future AI innovations may quietly shift to those more open and inclusive countries. This is not only an issue for OpenAI but may also affect the R&D forces of global tech giants like Google and Meta.

If the U.S. AI industry fails to address the issue of talent loss, it may face a change in the global AI innovation landscape.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7498105524752368143/

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