Why Mira Murati's start-up refused to join Meta's AI team
What's the story
Meta, the tech giant led by Mark Zuckerberg, has been on a mission to build its Superintelligence unit. The company has been aggressively trying to recruit top AI researchers and experts from other companies. However, its latest target Thinking Machines Lab (TML), a start-up founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, has so far resisted Meta's overtures.
Strategy
Life-changing sums offered to TML employees
According to a WIRED report, Meta has contacted around 50 employees of TML with lucrative job offers. One senior researcher was even offered a package worth over $1 billion. Other employees were promised first-year payouts between $50 million and $100 million. Despite these tempting offers, none of the TML team members have accepted Meta's proposals so far. Experts believe that Murati's leadership and vision may be a reason why her team is not jumping ship.
Recruitment approach
Recruitment process led by Zuckerberg
Meta's recruitment process starts with a discreet WhatsApp message from Zuckerberg himself. This is followed by a series of interviews with senior executives, including Meta's technology chief Andrew "Boz" Bosworth. The pitch is simple: join Meta and help build the next generation of AI assistants, open models, and digital tools that could potentially reach billions of users.
Market disruption
Open-sourcing AI models to disrupt market
Meta is well aware that it lags behind OpenAI in creating popular models. To disrupt the market, the company plans to open-source its systems, flooding the industry with free tools that directly compete with ChatGPT. However, this strategy has already caused some internal friction at Meta. Llama 4, the company's latest AI family, was launched amid controversy over benchmarking tricks that made it appear stronger than it really was.
Industry reaction
Industry divided on Meta's ambitions
Meta's new unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs, has become a topic of discussion in the AI community. Some industry voices are skeptical about it, calling it a group of inflated egos with no clear plan. Others are taking a cautious wait-and-see approach to see how this billion-dollar experiment plays out in closing the gap with OpenAI.