ByteDance and Kuaishou Witness Departure of Top AI Experts as China's Unicorn Boom Seeks Next OpenAI
ByteDance and Kuaishou are witnessing the departure of top AI experts amid investor interest in the next OpenAI. Yang Hongxia and Fu Ruiji have left ByteDance and Kuaishou, respectively, to pursue their own AI projects. China's unicorn boom has produced four "AI tigers" - Baichuan, Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax.
This trend comes as investors show increased interest in startups that have the potential to become the next OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
One notable departure is Yang Hongxia, who played a key role in the research and development of large language models (LLMs) at ByteDance. According to a report by Chinese media outlet 36Kr, Yang recently left the Beijing-based company to embark on her own AI projects. LLMs are the underlying technology behind generative AI services like ChatGPT.
Similarly, Fu Ruiji, a tech leader involved in Kuaishou's Knowledge Graph and LLM projects, has also left the company. Chinese media outlet LingTai reported that Fu departed to prepare for an AI startup project.
Details regarding the specific endeavors of Yang and Fu remain unclear as they could not be reached for comment. Both ByteDance and Kuaishou have not yet responded to requests for comment.
The departure of these experts reflects China's current unicorn boom, which has already produced four "AI tigers" - startups that have raised billions of dollars from deep-pocketed investors. These mainland unicorns include Baichuan, Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax.
Yang, who reportedly joined ByteDance to lead the company's AI Lab and develop its LLMs, previously worked at Alibaba Group Holding, where she oversaw the M6 AI model. It is worth noting that Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Fu, on the other hand, served as the vice-director at iFlytek's AI research arm before joining Kuaishou in 2021. He played a significant role in the development of Kuaipedia, the world's first large-scale multi-modal short-video encyclopedia, and KwaiAgents, an information-seeking agent system with LLMs.
Notably, Wang Changhu, the former head of ByteDance's vision technology unit, is among several AI experts who have left the company in the past three years. Wang founded his own company called AIsphere in 2023 and secured fresh financing in March.
Alibaba, known for its investment in developing Tongyi Qianwen AI models, has also witnessed the departure of several top AI specialists since last year. Jia Yangqing, who previously led the computing platform department of Alibaba's cloud unit, reportedly left the company early last year to join a startup focused on AI infrastructure.
In response to the growing competition for AI talent, China's leading tech companies, including Baidu, Huawei Technologies, and Alibaba, are making efforts to attract top-tier AI professionals by offering competitive salaries and generous benefits. Pinduoduo, a budget shopping platform operator, even ramped up job advertisements last November, offering up to 60,000 yuan (US$8,282) per month for roles such as LLM developers and LLM referencing engineers based in its Shanghai headquarters.
ByteDance and Kuaishou are witnessing the departure of top AI experts amid investor interest in the next OpenAI.
Yang Hongxia and Fu Ruiji have left ByteDance and Kuaishou, respectively, to pursue their own AI projects.
China's unicorn boom has produced four "AI tigers" - Baichuan, Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax.
Source: SCMP