硅谷科技巨頭的“天價”高薪付給了誰？

SAN FRANCISCO — Silicon Valley’s startups have always had a recruiting advantage over the industry’s giants: Take a chance on us and we’ll give you an ownership stake that could make you rich if the company is successful.

舊金山——在招聘上，硅谷的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司向來比業(yè)內(nèi)巨頭有優(yōu)勢：給我們一次機(jī)會，如果公司取得成功，我們會給你股權(quán)，讓你富起來。

Now the tech industry’s race to embrace artificial intelligence may render that advantage moot — at least for the few prospective employees who know a lot about AI.

現(xiàn)在，科技行業(yè)爭相發(fā)展人工智能(artificial intelligence，簡稱AI)可能會讓這個優(yōu)勢失去意義，至少對為數(shù)不多非常了解AI的潛在員工來說是這樣。

Tech’s biggest companies are placing huge bets on artificial intelligence, banking on things ranging from face-scanning smartphones and conversational coffee-table gadgets to computerized health care and autonomous vehicles. As they chase this future, they are doling out salaries that are startling even in an industry that has never been shy about lavishing a fortune on its top talent.

科技行業(yè)內(nèi)的巨頭們在人工智能上押了巨額賭注，對從可掃描人臉的智能手機(jī)和可交流的茶幾物件，到計算機(jī)化的醫(yī)療保健和自動駕駛汽車的產(chǎn)品寄予厚望。在追逐這個未來時，它們開出的工資，即便在一個從來不忌諱在高端人才上花大錢的行業(yè)來說，也是令人震驚的。

Typical AI specialists, including both Ph.D.s fresh out of school and people with less education and just a few years of experience, can be paid from $300,000 to $500,000 a year or more in salary and company stock, according to nine people who work for major tech companies or have entertained job offers from them. All of them requested anonymity because they did not want to damage their professional prospects.

據(jù)九名在主要科技公司供職或得到了它們提供的工作機(jī)會的人士介紹，普通AI專家，包括剛走出校門的博士和受教育程度沒有這么高，只有幾年工作經(jīng)驗的人，一年也可以拿到30萬美元到50萬美元甚至更多的薪水和公司股票。他們均要求匿名，因為他們不想破壞自己的職業(yè)前景。

Well-known names in the AI field have received compensation in salary and shares in a company’s stock that total single- or double-digit millions over a four- or five-year period. And at some point they renew or negotiate a new contract, much like a professional athlete.

AI領(lǐng)域的知名人士收到的薪水和公司股份，在四五年時間里，總額能到數(shù)百萬或數(shù)千萬美元。在某個時刻，他們還會續(xù)簽或通過協(xié)商達(dá)成新的合同，這很像職業(yè)運(yùn)動員。

At the top end are executives with experience managing AI projects. In a court filing this year, Google revealed that one of the leaders of its self-driving-car division, Anthony Levandowski, a longtime employee who started with Google in 2007, took home over $120 million in incentives before joining Uber last year through the acquisition of a startup he had co-founded that drew the two companies into a court fight over intellectual property.

最上面的是有管理AI項目經(jīng)驗的高管。在今年的一份法庭備案文件中，谷歌(Google)透露其自動駕駛汽車部門的負(fù)責(zé)人之一、從2007年開始就在谷歌任職的老員工安東尼·萊萬多夫斯基(Anthony Levandowski)在去年因為聯(lián)合創(chuàng)辦的一家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司被收購而加入優(yōu)步(Uber)前，獲得了超過1.2億美元的獎勵。那場收購導(dǎo)致兩家公司因為知識產(chǎn)權(quán)而鬧上了法庭。

Salaries are spiraling so fast that some joke the tech industry needs a National Football League-style salary cap on AI specialists. “That would make things easier,” said Christopher Fernandez, one of Microsoft’s hiring managers. “A lot easier.”

工資漲得這么快，以致有人開玩笑說，科技業(yè)需要對AI專家實行全國橄欖球聯(lián)盟(National Football League)式的工資上限。“這會讓事情容易些，”微軟的招聘經(jīng)理之一克里斯托弗·費(fèi)爾南德斯(Christopher Fernandez)說。“容易很多。”

There are a few catalysts for the huge salaries. The auto industry is competing with Silicon Valley for the same experts who can help build self-driving cars. Giant tech companies like Facebook and Google also have plenty of money to throw around and problems that they think AI can help solve, like building digital assistants for smartphones and home gadgets and spotting offensive content.

多個因素催生了豐厚的薪水。汽車行業(yè)正在和硅谷爭奪這些能夠幫忙打造無人駕駛汽車的專家。Facebook和谷歌這樣的科技巨頭也有可供其揮霍的大量資金，和它們認(rèn)為AI能夠幫忙解決的問題，比如為智能手機(jī)和家用物件打造數(shù)字助手和發(fā)現(xiàn)不良內(nèi)容。

Most of all, there is a shortage of talent, and the big companies are trying to land as much of it as they can. Solving tough AI problems is not like building the flavor-of-the-month smartphone app. In the entire world, fewer than 10,000 people have the skills necessary to tackle serious artificial intelligence research, according to Element AI, an independent lab in Montreal.

最重要的是，人才短缺，大公司都在努力將盡可能多的人才招致麾下。解決棘手的AI問題不像開發(fā)風(fēng)靡一時的智能手機(jī)應(yīng)用。據(jù)設(shè)在蒙特利爾的獨立實驗室Element AI稱，全世界只有不到一萬人具備進(jìn)行重要的人工智能研究所需的技能。

“What we’re seeing is not necessarily good for society, but it is rational behavior by these companies,” said Andrew Moore, dean of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, who previously worked at Google. “They are anxious to ensure that they’ve got this small cohort of people” who can work on this technology.

“我們目前看到的情形，不一定對社會有利，但這些公司這么做是理智的，”曾任職于谷歌的卡內(nèi)基梅隆大學(xué)(Carnegie Mellon University)計算機(jī)科學(xué)學(xué)院院長安德魯·穆爾(Andrew Moore)說。“它們渴望確保自己獲得了”能夠研究該項技術(shù)的“這一小群人”。

Costs at an AI lab called DeepMind, acquired by Google for a reported $650 million in 2014, when it employed about 50 people, illustrate the issue. Last year, according to the company’s recently released annual financial accounts in Britain, the lab’s “staff costs” as it expanded to 400 employees totaled $138 million. That comes out to $345,000 an employee.

2014年，谷歌據(jù)報道以6.5億美元的價格收購了當(dāng)時員工大約50人的AI實驗室DeepMind。該實驗室的成本說明了這個問題。根據(jù)該公司最近在英國公布的年度財務(wù)賬目，隨著實驗室擴(kuò)大到400名雇員的規(guī)模，“員工成本”總計1.38億美元。算下來一名員工34.5萬美元。

“It is hard to compete with that, especially if you are one of the smaller companies,” said Jessica Cataneo, an executive recruiter at the tech recruiting firm CyberCoders.

“很難與之競爭，特別是你是小公司的話，”科技招聘公司CyberCoders的高管招聘人員杰茜卡·卡塔內(nèi)奧(Jessica Cataneo)說。

With so few AI specialists available, big tech companies are also hiring the best and brightest of academia. In the process, they are limiting the number of professors who can teach the technology.

在可招聘的AI專家如此之少的情況下，大型科技公司也在招聘學(xué)術(shù)界最優(yōu)秀、最聰明的人才。在這個過程中，它們限制了能夠教授相關(guān)技術(shù)的教授人數(shù)。

Uber hired 40 people from Carnegie Mellon’s groundbreaking AI program in 2015 to work on its self-driving-car project. Over the last several years, four of the best-known AI researchers in academia have left or taken leave from their professorships at Stanford University. At the University of Washington, six of 20 artificial intelligence professors are now on leave or partial leave and working for outside companies.

2015年，優(yōu)步從卡內(nèi)基梅隆大學(xué)開創(chuàng)性的AI專業(yè)招聘了40人，參與其自動駕駛汽車項目。過去幾年里，學(xué)術(shù)界最有名的AI研究人員中，四人離開斯坦福大學(xué)的教授職位或請假。在華盛頓大學(xué)(University of Washington)，20名人工智能教授中目前有六人處在休假或部分休假狀態(tài)，為外部公司工作。

“There is a giant sucking sound of academics going into industry,” said Oren Etzioni, who is on leave from his position as a professor at the University of Washington to oversee the nonprofit Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

“高校學(xué)者進(jìn)入行業(yè)造成了巨大的人員流失，”為了管理非營利組織艾倫人工智能研究所(Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence)而從華盛頓大學(xué)的教授職位上請假的奧倫·埃齊奧尼(Oren Etzioni)說。

Some professors are finding a way to compromise. Luke Zettlemoyer of the University of Washington turned down a position at a Google-run Seattle laboratory that he said would have paid him more than three times his current salary (about $180,000, according to public records). Instead, he chose a post at the Allen Institute that allowed him to continue teaching.

一些教授找到了折中的辦法。華盛頓大學(xué)的盧克·澤特爾莫耶(Luke Zettlemoyer)拒絕了谷歌設(shè)在西雅圖的實驗室提供的崗位。他說，該崗位的待遇是目前工資(公開記錄顯示約為18萬美元)的三倍多。他選擇了允許他繼續(xù)授課的艾倫研究所的職位。

“There are plenty of faculty that do this, splitting their time in various percentages between industry and academia,” Zettlemoyer said. “The salaries are so much higher in industry, people only do this because they really care about being an academian.”

“很多教職工這么做，把時間按照各種比例分配到行業(yè)和學(xué)術(shù)上，”澤特爾莫耶說。“公司的工資高出太多了，人們之所以這么做，只是因為他們真的在乎學(xué)者身份。”