WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says Meta has tried, and failed, to poach his company's best engineers with eye-watering compensation packages.
Speaking on the Uncapped podcast, Altman claimed Meta has offered signing bonuses as high as $100 million, with even larger annual pay packages, in an effort to build a world-class artificial intelligence team. Despite these 'giant offers,' Altman said, 'so far none of our best people have decided to take them up on that.'
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has ramped up its AI ambitions, recently investing $14.3 billion to acquire a 49% stake in Scale AI.
The company is also reportedly recruiting top talent for its new 'superintelligence' lab as it races to catch up with AI leaders. Altman acknowledged Meta's aggressive push, noting, 'I respect continuing to try new things,' but argued that trying to replicate
OpenAI's work is unlikely to succeed. 'You're always going to where your competitor was, and you don't build up a culture of learning what it's like to innovate.'
Altman emphasized that OpenAI's mission developing artificial general intelligence that surpasses human capabilities remains a powerful draw for top talent, alongside the company's distinctive culture.
While some analysts credit Meta for advancing open-source AI through its Llama models, Altman suggested that massive paychecks alone won't build a winning AI team. Meta has not publicly commented on Altman's remarks.
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