Chen wrote: “I feel like someone has broken in and stolen something from our house. I have a visceral reaction right now.” “Please trust that you haven’t sat idly by.” “I will fight to keep you all, but I won’t do it at the cost of fairness to other people,” he wrote.
This news comes at a time when competition in Silicon Valley for top AI researchers has heated up. Zuckerberg’s approach has been aggressive, offering $100 million in signing bonuses to OpenAI staffers. Jack Altman, his brotherand podcast. The number was confirmed by multiple sources at OpenAI who had direct knowledge of the offers. According to The, the Meta CEO has personally reached out to potential recruits. Wall Street Journal. Chen wrote in Slack that Meta has been aggressively building their new AI initiative and has repeatedly (and largely unsuccessfully) tried recruiting some of our best talent with comp-focused offers.
According to a source close to Meta’s efforts, the company has significantly increased its research recruiting. It is focusing on talent from OpenAI and Google. One source told WIRED that Anthropic is a top competitor, but it’s not a good fit for Meta. The source claims that “they haven’t necessarily increased the band size, but top talent is no longer a problem.” OpenAI and Meta did not respond to requests for comments.
Chen’s note included messages written by seven other research leaders in the company. They wrote notes to employees to encourage them to remain. One leader in the Meta research team encouraged staff members to contact him if they were offered a job by Meta: “If they pressurize you or make ridiculous explosions offers, just tell them to back up, it’s not nice for people to be pressed into making a potentially important decision.” WIRED will not name the leader because they are not in the C-suite. “I would like to be able talk to you about it and I know everything about their offers.”
These remarks come at a time when OpenAI staff are struggling with an intense workload, which has many staffers working 80 hours per week. Multiple sources claim that OpenAI will be largely shut down next week to allow employees to recharge. Those same sources claim that executives are still planning to be at work.
According to Chen’s memo, “Meta will try to pressure you into making decisions quickly and in isolation”another leader of the company wrote. If you feel that pressure, don’t hesitate to reach out. Mark and I are here to support you!
Although OpenAI’s leadership takes Meta’s efforts very seriously, Chen said that the company was getting “too engrossed in the cadence and short-term comparison of the competition.” This appears to be changing now, with a focus on artificial general intelligence.
Chen wrote: “We must remain focused on finding ways to convert computation (many more supercomputers will be online later this year), into intelligence. “This is the main mission, and it’s crucial to remember that the skirmishes against Meta are a side quest.
I’ll be back this week, recharged and ready to fight pound for pound. DM me at any time.
Altman responded to Chen’s Slack message with “It has been amazing to watch Mark’s leadership and integrity throughout this process, especially in the times when he had to make difficult decisions.” “Very grateful that we have him as our Leader!”
