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In focus
- The Asian minds behind AI’s biggest breakthroughs
- Why money keeps flowing in Manila while SEA fintech crumbles
- A snapshot of Australia’s prominent AI startups
Hello reader,
Growing up, I never saw science as a path to wealth. I heard a lot of stories about scientists who worked tirelessly to make the world a better place but earned only modest incomes. Some even died poor – like Nikola Tesla, the namesake of the most well-known electric car brand today.
AI scientists have flipped the script, however. They are now being offered compensation packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, as per reports on Meta’s efforts to poach top AI talent from other labs like OpenAI or Google DeepMind.
As AI continues to reshape every aspect of our lives and redefine our future, it’s not surprising that the human brains behind frontier models are now highly sought-after.
Interestingly, many of today’s most disruptive AI breakthroughs owe much to scientists of Asian origin. Our initial research has so far yielded over 200 names.
Back in Southeast Asia, fintech remains a battleground.
My colleague Miguel Cordon digs into a curious anomaly today: While fintech sputters across Southeast Asia, lending in the Philippines is on a tear. With a young, underbanked population hungry for credit and digital finance, the region’s second-largest market could be where new money and fresh fintech bets land next.
Tran Tuan Viet Duc, data journalist
Top Stories
1️⃣ The Asian brains forging AI models at OpenAI, Google, Meta
Image credit: Timmy Loen
Who knew AI scientists would become this cool? In today’s talent war, model coders are the new celebrities. All eyes are on their next move.
Our constantly updated list of 200+ Asian contributors to companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta doubles as a watchlist of future founders and AI leaders in their own firms. For Asian firms chasing top talent, these names are prime targets.
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