Poaching spree: Meta hires three OpenAI researchers
Mark Zuckerberg has convinced three prominent AI researchers to move from OpenAI to Meta in a high-profile poaching manoeuvre.
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Mark Zuckerberg has convinced three prominent AI researchers to move from OpenAI to Meta in a high-profile poaching manoeuvre.
- Mark Zuckerberg has convinced three prominent AI researchers to move from OpenAI to Meta in a high-profile poaching manoeuvre.
- In mid-June, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on a podcast that Meta was offering his employees huge signing bonuses of $100 million.
- Mark Zuckerberg is urgently attempting to steer Meta out of what observers are calling a crisis situation after the release of the company’s latest large language model fell flat.
In mid-June, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on a podcast that Meta was offering his employees huge signing bonuses of $100 million.
He sounded surprised but confident because, in his own words, “none of our best people have decided to take them up on that.” In other words, OpenAI is keeping its top staff.
Well, that might not be true. As the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports, Meta has indeed poached three OpenAI researchers – Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Ziaohua Zhai – in a recruiting coup to join Zuckerberg’s superintelligence efforts.
The three researchers were all working in OpenAI’s Zurich office, set up in late 2024. Before that, the trio worked together at Google DeepMind, the WSJ said.
Amidst the ongoing AI craze, Zuckerberg is urgently attempting to steer Meta out of what observers are calling a crisis situation after the release of the company’s latest large language model fell flat.
A Bloomberg report recently claimed that Zuckerberg is personally assembling a team to achieve “superintelligence,” machines that are capable of surpassing human capabilities.
Zuckerberg, who is reportedly frustrated, plans to hire about 50 people and has shifted the layout of the company’s Menlo Park headquarters to put the new AI team near his office, Bloomberg said.
According to The Information, Meta is in talks to hire former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman to join the Facebook parent's AI efforts, for example.
The firm also recently announced a $14.8 billion investment in Scale AI last week, its second-largest investment to date.
Scale AI’s CEO Alexandr Wang has also been poached to lead the new team. According to the WSJ, Meta has also tried to recruit OpenAI co-founders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman, but neither has taken them up on the offer.
Sutskever has also turned down Zuckerberg’s bid to buy his AI startup, Safe Superintelligence, which is now valued at $32 billion.