Migration, Technology The Immigration Preferences of Top AI Researchers: New Survey Evidence

Artificial intelligence (AI) talent is global. AI researchers and engineers come from, and are in high demand, all over the world. Countries and companies trying to recruit and retain AI talent thus face immense competition.

In order to understand current and prospective flows of talent, researchers at Perry World House and the University of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute have published a new report, investigating the drivers of AI researchers’ immigration decisions and preferences through an in-depth survey.

Click here to read the report and learn more about the results of this survey, including which countries are the most attractive destinations for AI researchers; the mix of professional, personal, and political factors that influence migration decisions; and more. 

This paper is co-published by the Centre for the Governance of AI at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford and Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania, with institutional support from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University. This project was supported by the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund, and Michael Horowitz’s work on this project was supported in part by U.S. government grant FA9550-18-1-0194. The authors would like to thank Catherine Aiken, Zachary Arnold, Tessa Baker, James Dunham, Melissa Flagg, Charlie Giattino, Roxanne Heston, Igor Mikelic-Torreira, Dewey Murdick, and Helen Toner for feedback on the AI expert survey and the analysis. We are also grateful for research assistance and editorial support from Noemi Dreksler, Emmie Hine, Lauren Kahn, Will Marks, Kwan Ye Ng, and Sacha Zimmerman.