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Meta Stepps Up AI Hirement, Snags Two Leading Researchers from OpenAI, According to Reports

Meta accelerates AI workforce growth by recruiting prominent researchers, Jason Wei and Hyung Won Chung, from OpenAI, for its advanced artificial intelligence research center.

Meta escalates AI personnel growth, snatches two leading researchers from OpenAI, according to...
Meta escalates AI personnel growth, snatches two leading researchers from OpenAI, according to reports

Meta Stepps Up AI Hirement, Snags Two Leading Researchers from OpenAI, According to Reports

In the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence (AI), a heated competition between two tech giants, Meta and OpenAI, is unfolding. Both companies are at the forefront of the AI talent race, aiming to create advanced general intelligence (AGI) systems.

Recently, Meta has poached two prominent researchers from OpenAI, Jason Wei and Hyung Won Chung. Wei, a specialist in reinforcement learning and chain-of-thought prompting, and Chung, who focused on agents and reasoning, are set to join Meta's superintelligence lab.

This back-and-forth poaching incident reveals a highly competitive landscape in the AI industry. Meta's aggressive recruitment of top AI talent, including offering substantial bonuses, has led to significant talent loss at OpenAI.

According to reports, Meta has been spending billions to attract top AI talent. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, mentioned that Meta offered $100 million bonuses to woo OpenAI engineers. This aggressive recruitment drive has been a key factor in Meta's success in landing prominent figures like Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, who will lead Meta's Superintelligence Labs.

OpenAI, in response, has initiated a counterhiring rampage, recruiting engineers from xAI, Tesla, and Meta. The loss of talent has been deeply felt at OpenAI, with several employees accepting Meta's offers. OpenAI executives, particularly Chief Research Officer Mark Chen, have expressed a sense of urgency and loss.

Interestingly, neither OpenAI nor Meta has deactivated the Slack profiles of the poached researchers. This allows for an ongoing dialogue between the two companies, albeit in a more informal setting.

Jason Wei, one of the poached researchers, discussed his experience with reinforcement learning in a recent social media post. He compared AI training to personal development, stating that while imitation is good at first, beating the teacher requires taking risks and learning from the environment.

In a related development, Meta has also hired a few high-profile researchers from ChatGPT. The AI space is experiencing a growing talent arms race among businesses aiming to create AGI systems, and this competition shows no signs of slowing down.

Both companies are actively recruiting talent in the AI space. While Meta is focused on building its dream AI team, OpenAI is working to retain its best talent and recruit from other tech companies, including Tesla and Meta.

This intense competition in the AI talent market highlights the stakes in the generative AI sector. Both Meta and OpenAI are vying for leadership, and the outcome could shape the future of AI technology.

[1] Source: The Verge, "Meta is poaching top AI talent from OpenAI, and the AI industry is a mess", by James Vincent, 1st April 2023.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the battleground where Meta and OpenAI are engaged in a fierce competition, each striving to recruit top talent to build advanced general intelligence (AGI) systems. Meta's aggressive recruitment strategy, offering substantial bonuses to poach researchers like Jason Wei and Hyung Won Chung from OpenAI, has sparked a talent war in the AI industry.

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