Maybe As expected, many students who graduate with a PhD in an AI-related field end up joining an AI company, whether it's a startup or a big tech giant.
According to Stanford University's 2021 Artificial Intelligence Quotient Report, the number of new AI PhD graduates entering the AI industry in North America increased from 44.4% in 2010 to approximately 48% in 2019. In contrast, the proportion of new AI PhDs entering academia fell from 42.1% in 2010 to 23.7% in 2019.
Private industry's willingness to pay top dollar for AI talent may be a factor.
Job openings at the biggest AI ventures like OpenAI and Anthropic list eye-popping salaries of $700,000 to $900,000 for entry-level researchers, according to data from salary negotiation service Rora. Google has reportedly gone as far as offering large grants of restricted stock to encourage top data scientists.
There's no doubt that AI graduates welcome this trend, but who wouldn't kill for such a high starting salary? —It has an alarming impact on the academic world.
A 2019 study co-authored by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Changgang School of Management in Beijing found that between 2018 and 2019, nearly 100 AI faculty members left North American universities for jobs in industry. It turned out that it did. Specialization in computer science. From 2004 to 2019, Carnegie Mellon University alone lost 16 AI faculty members, while Georgia Tech and the University of Washington each lost about 12, the study found.