Researchers in artificial intelligence can stand to make a ton of money. But this week, we actually know just how much some A.I. experts are being paid — and it’s a lot, even at a nonprofit.
OpenAI, a nonprofit research lab, paid its lead A.I. expert, Ilya Sutskever, more than $1.9 million in 2016, according to a recent public tax filing. Another researcher, Ian Goodfellow, made more than $800,000 that year, even though he was only hired in March, the New York Times reported.
As the publication points out, the figures are eye-opening and offer a bit of insight on how much A.I. researchers are being paid across the globe. Normally, this kind of data isn’t readily accessible. But since OpenAI is a nonprofit organization, it’s required by law to make these figures public.