China poaches US AI talent from OpenAI as it eyes Claude, ChatGPT

Yao Shunyu (right), chief AI scientist of Tencent, discusses technology prospects with Tencent

CNBC | Evelyn Cheng

BEIJING — A former OpenAI researcher is now chief AI scientist at China’s Tencent and wants to develop artificial general intelligence.

This is a sign of a shift in the technological race between the United States and China.

AI with human-level or better capabilities (AGI) has long been the goal of US companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Alphabet, which acquired UK startup DeepMind.

Chinese companies, eager to catch up on AI and facing U.S. controls on chips, have instead focused on ways to use the technology in applications ranging from factories to consumer electronics. Baidu CEO Robin Li previously predicted that it would take until at least 2034 to reach AGI, contrary to Elon Musk’s prediction for 2026 at the time.

But as Chinese companies capture Silicon Valley talent, they increasingly bring the American vision with them.

“My personal goal is that in China we establish a long-term AGI organization,” Yao Shunyu, Tencent’s chief AI scientist, who joined the company last year after leaving his role at OpenAI, said in remarks translated from Mandarin by CNBC.

Yao was discussing the next stage of AI development with Dowson Tong, head of cloud at Tencent, on stage Friday at the company’s event in Beijing, co-hosted with local authorities. A senior Beijing official delivered the opening speech.

Yao said Friday that his vision for AGI would require fundamental knowledge, products and exploration of boundaries.

“I don’t think ChatGPT or Claude will be the only super apps,” Yao said, saying the untapped potential is in the “billions of dollars.” The performance of an AI tool is most important, followed by cost, he said, adding that the way forward in China is through smaller AI models and more consistent performance on basic tasks.

His optimism contrasts with growing caution about AI in the United States.

Anthropic warned Thursday that frontier models are nearing the point where they can improve without human oversight. The company called for an industry slowdown or a pause in the development of new models to avoid disruption to society.

The San Francisco-based startup earlier this year urged Washington to maintain America’s lead over Chinese models. Anthropic has focused on AI security since its inception and has drawn criticism from competitors that its security warnings are designed to hinder competition.

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