China is increasingly keeping its best AI talent to itself

For China’s top AI researchers, the borders are quickly closing. Researchers, startup founders and executives at private firms are now reportedly subject to travel restrictions, with some of the industry’s most prominent figures required to seek government approval before heading abroad. The restrictions reflect a wider shift in how Beijing manages the brain-drain in the AI sector, which has seen skyrocketing demand for talent to train and tweak AI models as the global tech industry taps into this new avenue to seek growth.