Artificial intelligence expert Zhu Songchun to return to China from US

According to a study earlier this year by MarcoPolo, a US think tank affiliated with the Paulson Institute in Chicago, China is the largest global source of top-tier AI talent. However, 88 per cent of those who completed graduate studies in the US have chosen to stay and work there, helping America lead the way in the field.

Chinese AI researchers accounted for the largest share of international researchers working at US-based companies and institutions.

But as the technological war between the US and China unfolded, Washington heightened its scrutiny of Chinese researchers and stepped up its visa controls, casting a shadow on global flow of AI talent into the US, the MarcoPolo study concluded.