(JW Insights) Jun 12 -- Microsoft is moving some of its best artificial intelligence researchers from China to Canada amid escalating geopolitical tensions. The move threatens to gut an essential training ground for the Asian country’s tech talent, reported Financial Times on June 10.

The Beijing-based Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) has begun seeking visas to move top AI experts from China’s capital to its institute in Vancouver, said four people with knowledge of the plans.

These people said the move could affect 20 to 40 staff. A person close to Microsoft said fewer Chinese staff will move to Canada this year, where the US tech giant is creating a new lab staffed by experts from around the world.

Researchers described the move as the so-called “Vancouver Plan.” Those with knowledge of the decision described it as a response to heightened political tensions between the US and China, as well as a defensive manoeuvre to stop top talent from being poached by domestic tech groups desperate for AI researchers to develop domestic versions of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to Financial Times.

After this article was first published, Microsoft said: “the number reported is not accurate. There is no ‘so-called Vancouver Plan.’”

The company said on June 9 that: “We are establishing a new lab in Vancouver that will be organisationally aligned with MSRA and designed to better engage with the engineering teams in Vancouver. The lab will be staffed with people from other MSR labs around the world, to include China.”

Two MSRA researchers said they had received recent job offers from Chinese internet companies, but have turned down the approaches and are applying for visas to move to Canada instead.

“Even though Microsoft has deep links with China, there is a risk in having our best researchers here, especially ones working in machine learning,” said one of the researchers.

Founded by Taiwanese computer scientist Lee Kai-Fu, MSRA has been an important training centre for Chinese tech talent.

“MSRA’s contribution to AI has been phenomenal,” said one tech consultant in China who has previously worked with Microsoft. “It has been working in the field for a long time. Many ex-colleagues have joined Chinese tech companies and boosted the overall AI ecosystem in China.”

Microsoft has been in China for more than three decades. It has retained a strong presence in the country, even as other Western tech groups, including Google, eBay, Facebook and Uber, have been forced out by competition or regulation.

MSRA stood out as a rare example of collaboration between China and the US on high-tech research. But two researchers said deteriorating relations between the two powers and increased paranoia about their respective tech ambitions had narrowed their ability to collaborate with colleagues in the west and put them under greater scrutiny from officials in China, according to the report from Financial Times.

(Gao J)