Sam Altman says Meta offered $100M to poach OpenAI staff
What's the story
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has disclosed that Meta offered signing bonuses as high as $100 million to entice employees away from OpenAI.
So far none of the company's top talent has accepted the offers, Altman revealed on his brother Jack Altman's podcast.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on a hiring spree, trying to build his company's superintelligence team with top AI researchers from rival labs.
Recruitment attempts
'Our employees think OpenAI has a better shot at AGI'
Altman said on the podcast, "[Meta has] started making these, like, giant offers to a lot of people on our team," adding that he is "really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take him up on that."
He further explained his employees probably think OpenAI has a better shot at AGI (artificial general intelligence) and could be more valuable in the future.
Company ethos
'Meta's high compensation packages would not create great culture'
Altman also shared his belief that OpenAI's focus on achieving AGI makes it a more valuable company in the long run.
He said, "Meta's focus on high compensation packages for employees, rather than the mission of delivering AGI, would likely not create a great culture."
This statement highlights the difference between Meta and OpenAI's approach toward talent acquisition and retention.
Recruitment challenges
Meta tried to recruit AI researchers from Google DeepMind too
Despite its aggressive recruitment strategy, Meta has failed to poach some of the top AI researchers from OpenAI and Google DeepMind.
The tech giant had tried to recruit Noam Brown, one of OpenAI's lead researchers, and Koray Kavukcuoglu, Google's AI architect. However, both attempts were unsuccessful.
But Meta has made some headway in its hiring spree by recruiting other notable AI researchers, such as Jack Rae from Google DeepMind and Johan Schalkwyk from Sesame AI.
Innovation concerns
Don't think they're a company that's great at innovation: Altman
Altman expressed his doubts about Meta's ability to innovate, saying, "I don't think they're a company that's great at innovation."
He also said that "current AI efforts have not worked as well as they hoped," further underscoring his skepticism about the tech giant's capabilities in this area.
Lab development
Meta has hired Scale AI CEO for its superintelligence lab
Despite the challenges, Meta has made some progress in building its AI superintelligence lab.
The company recently hired Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI, to lead the new team. It also invested $14 billion in Wang's company, Scale AI.
However, as Altman noted, there is still a long way to go before this lab can compete with established players like OpenAI and Google DeepMind.