WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - OpenAI's leadership is working urgently to stem an exodus of senior researchers after Meta successfully recruited several top team members.
In a company-wide Slack message obtained by Wired, Chief Research Officer Mark Chen compared the defections to a break-in, saying, 'It feels visceral, like someone has broken into our home and stolen something.'
Chen assured employees that he, CEO Sam Altman, and other executives were 'working around the clock' to retain talent, recalibrating compensation packages and exploring new ways to recognize and reward high performers.
Reports last week revealed that eight OpenAI researchers had left for Meta, including Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, who helped establish OpenAI's Zurich office.
The high-profile departures are part of Meta's broader push to boost its AI talent base, alongside its recent $14.3 billion investment for a 49% stake in Scale AI and attempts to recruit Safe Superintelligence co-founder Daniel Gross and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.
Speaking on a podcast, Altman criticized Meta's aggressive hiring tactics, alleging it offered signing bonuses as high as $100 million - a figure Meta has denied internally. Altman argued that OpenAI's mission-driven culture and commitment to developing artificial general intelligence give it a stronger long-term appeal than high pay alone.
Meta's aggressive recruiting underscores the intensifying battle for AI expertise, which is becoming as crucial as advancing the underlying technology. OpenAI's swift moves to counter Meta's offers highlight the fierce competition in a sector where talent is the most valuable asset.
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