Junior AI researchers in demand by universities, industry

Artificial intelligence (AI) researchers across all academic career stages are feeling the lure of industry, thanks to higher salaries and perks such as access to large data sets and computing resources. Businesses are recruiting AI specialists for projects ranging from modelling risk in finance to designing crop-harvesting robots, writes Roberta Kwok for Nature.

In the past year, the number of PhD graduates on LinkedIn who say they have AI expertise has risen by 66%, according to a report published in April by the software provider Element AI in Montreal, Canada. And the number of researchers publishing at top machine-learning conferences increased by 19%.

From a sample of 4,500 researchers, the report authors found that the United States continues to be a major hub of AI training and employment. Other hotspots include China, the United Kingdom and Germany. But demand is outstripping supply, says Yoan Mantha, market intelligence lead at Element AI. The company estimates that in the United States, there are around 144,000 AI-related job openings and only about 26,000 developers and specialists seeking work.
Full report on the Nature site