Demand and competition drive AI-expert salaries to that of celebrities

By Heather Hamilton, contributing writer

It’s no surprise that artificial intelligence is of growing interest to Silicon Valley companies small and large, and the demand for knowledgeable employees comes with a pretty high price tag. The New York Times reports that in an industry that is known to reward talent, salaries for AI specialists remain startling. 

According to Slate, venture capital funding in AI has risen to over $9.5 billion in the first five months of 2017 — the biggest investment trend of the year, but also the biggest hiring trend.

AI experts, which include new Ph.D.s and people with lesser degrees, are being paid anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 a year in company stock and salary, according to nine people who either work for or have received offers from tech companies. The New York Times also reports that, like professional athletes, these employees often renew and renegotiate new contracts. Apparently, there’s an industry joke that perhaps they should implement salary caps similar to those in the NFL.

Salaries are so inflated because there’s demand — and competition. The auto industry also seeks to recruit and retain from the same pool of applicants, and huge companies like Facebook and Google are able to put endless amounts of money toward AI specialists that just might solve the kind of problems that they’re after.

There’s also not enough talent, which helps make available specialists richer than they may have ever dreamed. Right now, Element AI of Montreal estimates that fewer than 10,000 people in the world are equipped to take on artificial intelligence at the level that companies want and need.

Andrew Moore, the dean of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and prior Google employee, believes that it isn’t necessarily a positive on a societal level, but he does see it as rational behavior for the companies. He says, “They are anxious to ensure that they’ve got this small cohort of people” who are capable of working on and in AI technology.

At Google-DeepMind, there is a $138 million in staff costs, which averages out to $345,000 per employee. Smaller companies and startups simply can’t compete with that sort of budget.

Of course, the problem is cyclical. With so few specialists available, professors capable of educating more are being scooped up by the industry at salaries that far exceed those that universities are typically able to offer. Some professors continue to split their time, but that group is small because it requires an intense devotion to academia and a disregard for $500,000 paychecks.

To combat this shortage, large companies (like Facebook and Google) are teaching classes to current employees, and some even offer online options. Smaller companies are filling the gaps by hiring physicists and astronomers with strong math skills or hiring from Asia, Eastern Europe, and other places where wages tend to be lower.

Sources:  New York Times, Slate, Element AI
Image Source:  Pixabay