Meta Hires 3 OpenAI Researchers in Major Talent Grab
▼ Summary
– Meta poached three OpenAI researchers (Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai) for its superintelligence team, despite Sam Altman’s criticism of Mark Zuckerberg’s hiring tactics.
– Zuckerberg has been offering $100+ million compensation packages and personally messaging AI researchers via WhatsApp to recruit them, as reported by the WSJ.
– Meta’s recruitment strategy includes hosting dinners at Zuckerberg’s homes and coordinating targets through a dedicated chat group called “Recruiting Party 🎉.”
– The strategy has had mixed success, securing Scale AI’s CEO Alexandr Wang but failing to attract OpenAI co-founders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman.
– Altman publicly stated that none of OpenAI’s top talent has accepted Zuckerberg’s offers so far, expressing satisfaction with their retention.
Meta has successfully recruited three prominent OpenAI researchers, marking a significant win in the ongoing battle for elite artificial intelligence talent. The move comes despite public criticism from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who previously mocked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive hiring strategies.
According to reports, Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, key figures behind OpenAI’s Zurich operations, have joined Meta’s superintelligence division. Their defection underscores the effectiveness of Zuckerberg’s high-stakes recruitment drive, which includes offering nine-figure compensation packages and personal outreach via WhatsApp.
Zuckerberg has reportedly been orchestrating this talent grab through a dedicated group chat labeled “Recruiting Party 🎉”, followed by intimate dinners at his Palo Alto and Lake Tahoe residences. While the approach has yielded some successes, such as securing Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang with a $14 billion investment, other high-profile targets, including OpenAI co-founders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman, have remained out of reach.
Altman, in a recent podcast, downplayed the impact of Zuckerberg’s efforts, stating that none of OpenAI’s top talent had accepted Meta’s offers, at least not yet. The rivalry between the two tech giants highlights the intense competition for AI expertise, as companies race to dominate the next wave of technological innovation.
(Source: TechCrunch)
