The competition for top AI talent is intense. While many companies are offering significant compensation, Meta is elevating its efforts to a new level, particularly in recruiting talent from its rivals.
Meta Scores Big
Mark Zuckerberg has been on a significant recruiting drive, successfully hiring three key researchers from OpenAI: Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai. This team, responsible for establishing OpenAI’s Zurich office, has now joined Meta’s superintelligence division. This development is noteworthy, especially after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly downplayed Zuckerberg’s recruitment capabilities.
Zuckerberg’s Approach (Apparently Not So Secret)
How is he achieving this? His methods are reportedly quite direct:
- He is personally contacting hundreds of top AI researchers via WhatsApp.
- Meta is offering compensation packages reportedly exceeding $100 million.
- Zuckerberg is hosting dinners at his homes in Palo Alto and Lake Tahoe to recruit potential hires.
He even utilizes a ‘Recruiting Party’ chat to coordinate targets, indicating a highly organized and aggressive effort.
Is the Grand Plan Working?
The results of this strategy appear to be mixed. Zuckerberg successfully recruited the OpenAI researchers mentioned, a significant achievement, and also secured Scale AI’s CEO, Alexandr Wang. This latter move reportedly involved a substantial investment, making Wang one of tech’s most expensive hires. However, other key targets, such as OpenAI co-founders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman, have reportedly chosen to launch their own startup instead.
This situation contrasts with recent comments from Sam Altman, who said on a podcast:
“I’m really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take him up on [those offers].”
These latest hires suggest that Zuckerberg’s persistence may be yielding results. The competition for AI talent, often dubbed the AI talent war, is certainly intensifying.