[Global Focus] US Launches 'Second Paperclip'... Critical Race to Recruit 'AI Superiority' Talent

All-Out Effort to Attract AI Experts

"The U.S. government's attempt to attract overseas artificial intelligence (AI) talent is like 'Operation Paperclip' (the U.S. operation to recruit German scientists after World War II)."

The New York Times (NYT) made this assessment on the 24th of last month (local time) regarding the 'AI National Security Memorandum' signed by President Joe Biden. It explained that the U.S. efforts to secure talent in the AI security memorandum resemble the situation where the U.S. worked hard to bring in capable nuclear scientists from abroad after World War II.

What is 'Operation Paperclip'? "Recruiting German Scientists... U.S. Nuclear Development Supremacy"

Operation Paperclip was a U.S. Strategic Services Office (OSS) operation conducted after World War II to recruit key Nazi German personnel. This operation was carried out by the OSS from 1945 to 1946, and after the OSS was disbanded and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) became the official U.S. intelligence agency, a similar Nazi German scientist recruitment operation continued until 1955. The operation recruited Nazi Germany's scientific technology and talented scientists, focusing especially on acquiring scientific technologies related to aerodynamics, rocket technology, chemical weapons, chemical reaction technology, and pharmaceuticals. The scientists involved all immigrated to the U.S. with their families.

Through this, the U.S. gained an advantage in the nuclear weapons development race against Russia. Notably, the U.S. was officially recognized as a nuclear-armed state in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which came into effect in 1970, allowing it to permanently outpace non-nuclear states in the power dynamics of nuclear weapons.

Launching a Second Operation Paperclip to Dominate AI Hegemony

The core of the recent 'AI National Security Memorandum' can be summarized as recruiting 'overseas AI advanced talent.' First, the AI security memorandum stipulates that "the Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security must use all available legal authorities to attract AI experts." This includes immigration policies. It also states that "within 90 days, the National Security Advisor must convene relevant administrative departments and agencies to streamline visa administrative procedures for AI experts." Furthermore, "within 180 days, the Economic Policy Advisor and the National Economic Council must prepare an analysis of both the U.S. and overseas AI talent markets." It also requires the establishment of a 'National Security AI Talent Committee' composed of senior AI officials from all agencies within the coordination group within 90 days.

The AI security memorandum expresses a determination to designate AI, which has so far been developed mainly by private companies, as a national strategic asset like nuclear weapons and space technology, mobilizing all government capabilities. It is interpreted as revealing the goal of widening the gap with China, which is pushing for AI advancement. The AI National Security Memorandum, composed of eight sections, contains measures for securing U.S. AI leadership and implementing AI utilization from a national security perspective across government departments.

U.S. AI Talent Pool Shortage Deepens... Musk Calls It "The Craziest Talent War"

Currently, the U.S. is undoubtedly a superpower in AI technology. Big tech companies such as OpenAI, which triggered the global generative AI boom; Nvidia, which controls 80% of the AI chip market essential for AI training and inference; and Apple, Microsoft (MS), and Amazon, which are pouring astronomical costs into building AI infrastructure, are all prominent. According to the 2024 Global AI Index released by the UK media Tortoise, the U.S. scored 100 in AI capability, ranking first worldwide. China followed with 53.88, then Singapore (32.33), the UK (29.85), France (28.09), and Korea (27.26).

However, more advanced AI talent is being produced in China than in the U.S., setting off alarms in the U.S. According to the 'Global AI Talent Tracking' by Marco Polo, a think tank under the Paulson Institute at the University of Chicago, as of 2022, China holds 47% of the global advanced AI talent share, ranking first. The U.S. follows with 18%, but this is less than half of China's share.

In particular, there are concerns that the U.S. currently lacks a talent pool capable of keeping pace with the speed of AI development. At OpenAI, it is known that only 50% of the 100 AI experts hired in 2016 remain, with co-founder Ilya Sutskever resigning in May. At Meta Platforms, CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly made covert recruitment calls to some researchers at Google's AI lab DeepMind. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, described the fierce AI talent hunt across the industry in April as "the craziest talent war I've ever seen."

China Surpasses U.S. in AI Papers and Patents, "Wooing with High Salaries"

Last year, China also surpassed the U.S. in the number of top-tier AI papers and major national AI patents. According to the '2023 Global AI Innovation Index' report published by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC) in July, China's share of AI papers published in top academic journals and patent shares were 36.7% and 34.7%, respectively, surpassing the U.S. (22.6% and 32%).

According to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP), Chinese big tech companies are wooing AI talent by offering salaries far above the average in this field. A report from Peking University and the job platform Zhilian Zhaopin indicates that AI talent demand surged across China in the first half of this year, especially in natural language processing, with both established big tech and startups actively recruiting. Demand for talent in natural language processing increased by 111% compared to the first half of last year, and the average monthly salary for these talents was 24,007 yuan (about 4.65 million KRW), more than twice the IT sector's average monthly salary of 11,000 yuan.

"China AI Containment to Strengthen Even in Trump 2.0 Era"

Ultimately, the U.S. government's efforts to recruit AI talent and turn AI into a national strategic asset are analyzed as an intention to contain China, its biggest competitor. SCMP evaluated this as "evidence that the U.S. is containing China's rise and development in the global AI competition."

Bloomberg News predicted that while the second Trump administration would overhaul many of the Biden administration's executive orders, it would maintain the AI security memorandum. This is because the sense of crisis that AI development level can directly affect national competitiveness is a shared agenda without disagreement between Republicans and Democrats.

Concerns have also been raised that the U.S. Treasury Department's regulation announced on the 29th of last month, banning U.S. investments in China's AI and other advanced industries, reflects awareness of the importance of attracting AI talent. The U.S. economic media Fortune reported, "(Massive overseas investment capital) could be used by China to hire advanced AI industry talent." The Biden administration also signed an executive order last October to relax immigration regulations so that overseas AI experts can work in the U.S. At that time, domestic big tech companies such as Google and MS welcomed the government's executive order.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.