Over the past few weeks, Meta has doubled down on its generative AI efforts, pulling out all the stops, including offering up to $100 million signing bonuses and compensation to poach top AI talent from rival firms like Anthropic and OpenAI.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta Superintelligence Labs to develop capable AI models that supersede human capabilities, to enhance the user experience for people when interacting with technology. "I believe this will be the beginning of a new era for humanity, and I am fully committed to doing what it takes for Meta to lead the way," added Zuckerberg.
While Meta is seemingly having its moment in the sun with AI, OpenAI has had a rough couple of weeks. The ChatGPT maker has lost a handful of its staffers to Meta, prompting CRO (Chief Research Officer) Mark Chen to indicate that "someone has broken into our home and stolen something."
OpenAI staffers were recently compelled to go on a mandatory week-long vacation amid rising tension and claims that they'd been subjected to an 80-hour work week to maintain a significant lead in the AI landscape ahead of its rivals. Chen further revealed that he was working closely with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to recalibrate compensation while trying to identify creative ways to recognize and reward top talent.
To this end, it is still unclear how OpenAI plans to counter the threat to its dominance in the AI landscape. But perhaps more interestingly, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently revealed that, besides the huge signing bonuses (which he claims have been largely exaggerated) offered to staffers joining the company from rival firms, people are overlooking key reasons why researchers are excited to join the company's new AI lab (via The Information).
Zuck: AI researchers joining Meta for infinite compute and small teams, not just money from r/singularity
According to Zuckerberg:
"One of the biggest is that you can have more leverage as a researcher. You have more compute. Historically, when I was recruiting people to different parts of the company, people are like: what is my scope going to be? Here, people say they want the least number of people reporting to me and the most GPUs. Having basically the most compute per researcher is definitely a strategic advantage, not just for doing the work but attracting the best people."
Sam Altman indicated that Meta's AI approach and hiring spree is "somewhat distasteful," but predicts that things are likely to get crazier in the future. However, the executive warned that it could lead to deep cultural problems.
