内容来源：https://www.theverge.com/column/791572/ai-hiring-frenzy-startup-challenges

内容总结：

（本报讯）当前人工智能领域正经历一场激烈的人才争夺战。除了行业巨头OpenAI和Anthropic之外，众多初创企业正面临前所未有的招聘压力。

为吸引稀缺人才，初创公司各出奇招。Listen Labs公司在旧金山街头竖起仅显示神秘网址的纯白广告牌，成功吸引上万封求职邮件；Unify公司为心仪候选人定制油画；Decagon公司则通过投资人晚宴、NBA场边观赛等福利争取人才。然而这些努力往往难以抗衡巨头开出的天价薪酬——有企业透露，OpenAI曾以三倍薪资截获其目标人选。

据多家初创公司负责人反映，目前市场急需的是兼具顶尖技术能力与产品思维的"AI产品工程师"，这类人才全球仅数千人，人均手握十份录用通知。一位创始人坦言："我们投入重金宣传公司形象，但优秀人才仍会毫不犹豫选择Anthropic，这种挫败感非常强烈。"

尽管红杉资本等顶级投资机构的背书仍具吸引力，但创始人们普遍认为，在资本过剩的当下，融资优势正在减弱。有业内人士预测，当前AI创业泡沫终将破裂，但无人能预判转折点何时到来。在这场没有硝烟的战争中，初创企业不得不通过赋予"类创始人"身份、提供全流程产品开发机会等差异化优势，在人才争夺中寻找突破口。

中文翻译：

本文节选自艾历克斯·希斯主理的《行业探源》通讯，该专栏专注人工智能与科技产业动态，经授权每周独家为The Verge订户发布。

AI人才争夺战实录
若贵司并非OpenAI或Anthropic，当下招聘难度已达空前之境。

旧金山诺布山巅的广告牌未标"Listen Labs"字样，甚至未提招聘事宜——纯白底板上唯有"https://"前缀与一串神秘数字编码。

上月，这家初创公司CEO阿尔弗雷德·瓦尔福斯在X平台宣布：成功破译者若能完成后续挑战，将获赠柏林之旅并进入极秘俱乐部Berghain的白名单。这位创始人后来向我证实，这场被业界称为近年最精巧的科技招聘策划确实奏效——广告牌上线数日便收获数百万网络曝光，引发媒体追踪，吸引万名用户注册邮箱，并促成约60场候选人面试。

近期与瓦尔福斯等创始人的对谈显示，即便资金充裕的企业也面临空前激烈的人才竞争。"我们投入重金并非宣传公司，而是向工程师群体推销自身，"获得红杉资本2700万美元投资的瓦尔福斯坦言，"招募优秀人才极其艰难。我有位高中辍学的朋友，如今在OpenAI年薪竟达二百万美元。"

"你耗费大量时间沟通的候选人最终转身投入Anthropic，这种挫败感极其强烈。"

瓦尔福斯提及某位热爱骑行的应聘者：其联合创始人携顶级碳纤维公路车亲赴候选人家中。这份诚意虽助其成功招揽该人才，但更多时候他坦言难与AI巨头抗衡："眼睁睁看着精心筛选的人才选择Anthropic，整个过程令人痛彻心扉。"

类似挫败案例比比皆是。融资超5000万美元的AI销售平台UnifyCEO奥斯汀·休斯曾为心仪候选人定制画作，但OpenAI开出三倍薪酬。候选人携画作投奔了更高薪资。

估值15亿美元的DecagonCEO张杰西同样感受压力。被问及招聘困境时他表示："这是我每日必须面对的课题。"为吸引人才，Decagon使出浑身解数：与投资方Accel合办奢华晚宴、提供勇士队场边观赛席位，张杰西甚至曾亲赴南湾会晤候选人家属。

然而他最推崇的策略却朴实无华："前百名核心成员全是我的熟人。"休斯则透露其团队将领英人脉导入共享表格，通过索引匹配锁定与现有员工关联度最高的候选人。

究竟企业在追逐何种人才？多位创始人勾勒出统一画像：既能娴熟运用最新AI工具高效工作，又能承担产品经理职责的"AI产品工程师"。瓦尔福斯指出："兼具顶尖技术能力与产品思维的人才凤毛麟角。"他预估全球此类人才仅数千人，且人手握"十份录用通知"。

尽管OpenAI与Anthropic仍是这类人才的理想归宿，但创始人们普遍认为大型AI实验室正与科技巨头渐趋同质。瓦尔福斯指出，初创企业的优势在于能让应聘者体验"类创始人角色"，实现"端到端的产品构建"。

顶级投资方与知名品牌虽能锦上添花，但创始人们共识在于：在资本充裕的当下，豪华资方名单的吸引力正在衰减。张杰西预测这场人才狂热终将平息："资本过量涌入与AI初创泛滥终将引发行业洗牌。"难题在于，无人知晓转折何时来临。

英文来源：

This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.
Tales from the AI hiring frenzy
If you’re not OpenAI or Anthropic, hiring is more challenging than ever.
If you’re not OpenAI or Anthropic, hiring is more challenging than ever.
The billboard didn’t say “Listen Labs.” It didn’t say anything about hiring. It consisted of just a plain white background with “https://” and a single line of grouped numbers hanging over Nob Hill, San Francisco.
Last month, Alfred Wahlforss, the startup’s CEO, posted on X that whoever cracked the code and completed a subsequent challenge would win a trip to Berlin and get on the guest list for the ultra-exclusive nightclub Berghain.
One of the more elaborate tech startup recruiting stunts in recent memory worked, Wahlforss later told me. Within days, the billboard garnered millions of views online, attracted media coverage, collected 10,000 email sign-ups, and led to roughly 60 interviews with potential candidates.
In recent conversations I’ve had with Wahlforss and other startup founders, it’s clear that, even for well-funded firms, attracting top technical talent is more challenging than ever. “We are spending a ton of money to not even advertise the company, but just to advertise us to engineers,” according to Wahlforss, whose company has raised $27 million from Sequoia. “It has been extremely challenging to hire good people. I have a friend who’s a high school dropout, and he can work at OpenAI and make like $2 million a year.”
“You spend hours with people who end up rejecting you and just go to Anthropic. It’s very, very painful.”
Wahlforss told me about a recent candidate who loved cycling. His cofounder showed up at the candidate’s house with a high-end carbon road bike. The gesture helped push the candidate to turn down other offers. More often, though, he said it’s impossible to compete with the biggest names in AI and Big Tech. “You spend hours with people who end up rejecting you and just go to Anthropic. It’s very, very painful.”
You don’t have to look far to hear similar stories of rejection. Austin Hughes, the CEO of Unify, an AI sales platform that has raised over $50 million, commissioned a painting for a coveted candidate. But OpenAI offered triple the compensation that Unify could provide. The candidate took the money and kept the painting.
Jesse Zhang, the CEO of Decagon, is feeling the same squeeze despite running a fast-growing startup currently valued at $1.5 billion. “It’s one of the things I’m thinking about day to day,” he told me when I asked about the difficulty of recruiting. Decagon has pulled the classic levers to attract candidates, such as hosting fancy dinners with its investor, Accel, and offering courtside tickets to Warriors games. Zhang said he even drove to the South Bay recently and met with a candidate’s family.
However, the most reliable tactic he mentioned was not flashy at all: “All the senior hires we’ve made in the first 100 people were all just people I knew.” Hughes said his team at Unify exports their LinkedIn networks into a shared Google Sheet and creates an index match to find the best candidates with the most employee connections.
So who are all these companies chasing? Across my conversations, a consistent archetype emerged: an “AI product engineer” who can wield the latest AI tools at blistering speed without “shipping slop” and can also do the job of a product manager. “The intersection of being highly technical and also being product-centric is very small,” according to Wahlforss. He estimates the pool to consist of a couple of thousand people at most, each with “ten offers” at any given moment.
While OpenAI and Anthropic are still seen as two of the most desirable places to work for these kinds of people, a refrain I heard repeatedly from founders is that the big AI labs are quickly becoming indistinguishable from the rest of Big Tech. As Wahlforss framed it, the edge for a startup is telling a recruit they can be “almost like a mini founder” and “build products end-to-end.”
Top-tier investors and recognizable brands help at the margins, but another consensus was that a fancy cap table matters less now because so many startups are well-funded. Zhang thinks the hiring frenzy won’t last forever, though. There’s “too much capital,” too many AI startups, and at some point, the bubble will burst, he said. The trouble is nobody knows when.