(Bloomberg) — DeepSeek, the Chinese startup that stunned markets with an AI model on par with OpenAI’s, is aggressively recruiting specialists for a little-understood industry sphere in a signal of its rapidly expanding ambitions.
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The company advertised over the weekend for at least a half-dozen jobs focused on the frontier field of AGI or artificial general intelligence, from data experts and deep-learning researchers to a legal chief — even an intern for $70 a day. The roles are mainly located in Beijing though some will be based out of the startup’s home city of Hangzhou in eastern China.
The postings offer a glimpse into DeepSeek’s ambition to remain at the forefront of Chinese AI and compete with global rivals. AGI, which tech executives including OpenAI chief Sam Altman and SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son have portrayed as a sort of industry Holy Grail, refers to AI that understands, learns and applies knowledge across a range of tasks. Unlike more specialized models such as ChatGPT, AGI refers to general cognitive abilities similar to those of humans, sparking fears that AI could surpass human intelligence and run amok.
DeepSeek joins a coterie of players including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Alphabet Inc.’s Google that have articulated plans to explore the field. Reclusive founder Liang Wenfeng has been quoted in interviews touting the field.
In ads posted over the weekend, DeepSeek sought a head of legal to help build a risk governance framework for AGI and lead communication with government agencies, regulators and research institutions. For the deep-learning research job, the Chinese company prefers applicants that’ve “achieved good results in industry competitions.” Even for prospective interns, candidates that have published papers for AI conferences or contributed to open-source projects will be prioritized, according to the postings.
The job ads joined existing positions advertised on popular recruitment site Boss Zhipin. Among the best-paid roles was that of AGI researcher, which could pull down 1.26 million yuan ($172,000) annually, according to the most recent ads.
The Chinese company previously posted ads for a chief financial officer, chief operations officer, head of administration and recruiting manager, suggesting the startup is embarking on a major expansion.
DeepSeek shook the AI world this year by releasing multiple models within weeks that showed impressive results when benchmarked against leading models from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic.
Its services have been overwhelmed with demand since late January, after it unveiled an artificial intelligence chatbot that it says can rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT and was developed at a fraction of the cost.
–With assistance from Luz Ding and Jessica Sui.
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