Along with the formation of a large talent pool and many startup success stories, China is witnessing the early departure of some of its top scientists in the field of AI - mainly due to accidents or illness. These losses have raised concerns about the stressful working environment, high pressure and personal risks that researchers face.

“Although AI experts can earn high salaries, they are also working in a fiercely competitive environment,” said computer scientist Liu Shaoshan, adding that sometimes an idea has just begun to be tested before another group has announced it.

He also highlighted the ethical pressures AI researchers face: “Artificial intelligence has the potential to create huge changes in society. Taking responsibility for these impacts also causes a lot of mental pressure.”

The South China Morning Post has compiled a list of some of China's top AI scientists who died at the peak of their careers, with outstanding contributions in fields such as computer vision, military AI and medical technology.

Sun Jian (2022) - Computer vision expert

In June 2022, Sun Jian, a scientist at Chinese AI technology company Megvii, passed away suddenly at the age of 45 due to illness. He used to work at Microsoft and was an industry leader in computer vision and computational photography. He returned to China in 2016 and took on the role of research leader at Megvii, where he developed ShuffleNet, a mobile-optimized neural network, and Brain++, the company's core AI platform.

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Sun Jian (chief scientist of Beijing-based AI technology company Megvii) is one of several Chinese artificial intelligence experts who have died suddenly. Photo: SCMP

In 2019, he was appointed as the Dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence, Xi'an Jiaotong University. Expert Sun Jian owns 35 US patents, of which 13 are internationally registered.

Feng Yanghe (2023) - Military AI Expert

In July 2023, Professor Feng Yanghe - one of the pioneers in developing military simulation software in China - passed away while on an "important mission" at the age of 38.

He is an associate professor at the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), specializing in war simulation, reinforcement learning, and intelligent planning. Feng led the team that developed the War Skull I and II systems, simulation tools for military campaigns of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

Previously, he studied statistics at Harvard University and high performance computing at the University of Iowa (USA).

Tang Xiaoou (2023) - Founder of SenseTime

In 2023, Professor Tang Xiaoou - founder of technology group SenseTime, passed away at the age of 55 due to an undisclosed illness.

Born in 1968 in Liaoning, Mr. Tang Xiaoou graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China, then went to the US to study for a master's degree at the University of Rochester and received a doctorate from MIT in 1996. He worked at Microsoft Research Asia, and in 2014 founded SenseTime - one of the "Fab Four" of the Chinese AI industry.

SenseTime develops multi-angle, real-time facial recognition technology, and expands into fields such as finance, healthcare, and administration with the large language model Ririxin.

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Professor Tang Xiaoou - co-founder of SenseTime - passed away at the age of 55. Photo: SenseTime/Caixinglobal

He Zhi (2024) - Co-founder of Yidu Tech

He Zhi, co-founder and chief innovation officer of medical technology company Yidu Techc, died in April 2024 at the age of 41 from respiratory and heart failure while working in Qinghai province, a high-altitude province.

According to his obituary, He was a “leader of the digital transformation of China’s healthcare industry,” graduating from Tsinghua University and working at Alibaba before co-founding Yidu Tech in 2015. The Beijing-based company specializes in developing healthcare solutions using AI and big data.

Quan Yuhui (2025) - Computer Image Processing Expert

In January 2025, Mr. Quan Yuhui - Associate Professor of the School of Computer Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology - passed away at the age of 39 due to serious illness.

As a young talent, Quan Yuhui studied for his PhD at the National University of Singapore and has more than 80 international research papers. He was listed in the “Top 2% of the world's leading scientists” by Stanford University in 2024. Quan Yuhui focuses on new research areas such as computational photography, unsupervised learning, and texture analysis.

Concerns about harsh working environment

The successive deaths of top Chinese AI scientists at a young age in recent years have drawn attention not only because of the loss of human resources, but also because of the heavy pressure on the research community.

Although AI is a field of intense investment, the rapid pace of development, high expectations, and pressure from global competition may be exhausting and damaging young scientists. The question is: What will China’s AI industry do to protect the talent that is considered key to the future technology race?

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/loat-nha-khoa-hoc-ai-hang-dau-qua-doi-lam-day-len-lo-ngai-ve-ap-luc-trong-nganh-2391513.html