When Liu Chen (who asked to use a pseudonym), a leading engineer at Google’s TensorFlow artificial intelligence (AI) team, decided he was leaving the firm to move back to Beijing, his friends at home were confused. Chinese students flock to California’s universities and tech firms by the thousands to start tech careers. Nine out of 10 Chinese AI graduate students remain in the United Stated five years after graduation. But at the edge of this digital frontier, an emerging generation of Chinese experts—educated and trained in the United States—are heeding the call to join the project of national rejuvenation at home, where their Silicon Valley pedigree gives them intoxicating power to reshape organizations, industry, and culture.
