Meta Successfully Recruits Three OpenAI Researchers Despite Criticism
In the ongoing battle to secure top talent in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), Meta has reportedly achieved a significant victory by attracting three researchers from OpenAI. This comes in the face of criticism from rival Sam Altman regarding Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive recruitment tactics.
The recent triumph for Zuckerberg’s recruitment efforts includes the addition of Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai to Meta’s superintelligence team. These researchers, who were instrumental in establishing OpenAI’s Zurich office, have now joined forces with Meta, showcasing the effectiveness of Zuckerberg’s recruitment strategies as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
According to Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, Zuckerberg has been offering lucrative compensation packages exceeding $100 million in an attempt to entice top talent away from OpenAI. Reports indicate that Zuckerberg personally reaches out to hundreds of leading AI researchers via WhatsApp, organizing potential recruits through a dedicated chat group named “Recruiting Party 🎉” before hosting exclusive dinners at his residences in Palo Alto and Lake Tahoe.
While Zuckerberg has succeeded in recruiting Scale AI’s CEO Alexandr Wang with a $14 billion investment, making him one of the most expensive hires in the tech industry at just 28 years old, he has faced challenges in attracting other key figures from OpenAI. Notably, co-founders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman have opted to pursue other ventures, establishing their own startups instead.
During a podcast conversation, Altman expressed his satisfaction that OpenAI’s top talents have not been swayed by Zuckerberg’s recruitment tactics, stating, “I’m really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take him up on [those offers].” Despite the mixed outcomes of Zuckerberg’s charm offensive, Meta continues to make strides in securing top AI talent for its ambitious projects.