Introduction
Nearly half of all AI development jobs are concentrated in just six US cities, according to a report by the US research and education institute Brookings Institution.
The report claims that 47% of AI-related jobs, especially those related to generative AI, are found primarily in San Francisco, San Jose, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Seattle.
Although the July 2023 report did not give an exact number, Brookings reported that the California Bay Area, especially San Francisco and San Jose, led the pack in hosting nearly 60% of new generative AI jobs as of May 2023. 2023.
Artificial Intelligence Products
Generative AI is trained on vast amounts of data to recognize and produce new content based on user input. Leading platforms in generative AI include OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google Bard, and the generative AI art platforms generative AI art Stable Diffusion and Midjourney.
"If generative AI is to drive prosperity in more parts of the country, [...] it will likely require a degree of intentional investment, especially by the federal government, in new regions," the report authors wrote.
The Bay Area benefits from its proximity to major universities conducting AI research, such as Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley, as well as companies investing in and developing artificial intelligence, such as Google (Alphabet's parent company), Facebook, Salesforce and NVIDIA.
A Brookings Institution report last March warned of the concentration of AI in "superstar" cities and a "winner-take-most" dynamic in six digital services industries that provide online services to their customers.
"The growing geographic concentration of AI raises the question of whether politics can or should be used to counter it and promote more widely shared benefits," the report concluded.
Last month, streaming giant Netflix posted new job postings for AI-focused roles. Based in Los Gatos, California, another Bay Area city, Netflix said it would offer up to $900,000 in salary for its AI product manager position.
Brookings urged federal and state officials to act on policymaking early in AI development to broaden the emerging AI map as technologies grow.
"Federal leadership will be essential in fighting excessive concentration of the AI sector," the report says.
The organization suggested several things that policy makers could do to foster a broader road map for AI development, including expanding and better distributing research and development (R&D), expanding the reach of the National Institute for Research in Artificial Intelligence and the prioritization of inclusive data sets and testing tools.
Brookings points to the open source community as a model for decentralizing AI development, but says open source development alone won't solve the concentration of AI jobs. Ultimately, the federal government must get involved.
"Open source distribution and widespread licensing of large language models can also decentralize the industry," Brookings said. "But the wide distribution of a digital technology does not necessarily imply the wide distribution of its associated innovation, job creation, and executive leadership."
Earlier this month, a separate Goldman Sachs report said investments in artificial intelligence could reach $200 billion globally by 2025.
Summary
- Nearly half of AI development jobs are concentrated in six US cities: San Francisco, San Jose, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Seattle.
- The Bay Area, especially San Francisco and San Jose, leads by hosting 60% of new generative AI jobs.
- The Brookings Institution report calls for government policies to counter geographic concentration and encourage a broader map of AI development.