Mark Zuckerberg pursued aggressive recruiting in AI, offering massive compensation packages reportedly up to $1 billion to attract top machine learning researchers. Several high-profile hires accepted positions in a new Superintelligence lab, while some declined lucrative offers to join competing startups. Micromanagement and internal chaos arose, and multiple recent recruits left Meta within months, including Avi Verma, Ethan Knight, Rishabh Agarwal, and Chaya Nayak, with some returning to OpenAI. Public comments about the departures were limited. One departing researcher emphasized choosing a different kind of risk after years at Google Brain, DeepMind, and Meta, citing Zuckerberg's advice about taking risks.
Even in the money-soaked world of AI, the hiring efforts of Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg stood out this year as he enticed top machine learning researchers with payments reportedly reaching up to $1 billion to defect from their employers and come work for him instead. The overtures weren't always successful; in one embarrassing case, an individual was offered 10-figures to work at Meta's so-called Superintelligence initiative - but turned it down to stay at Thinking Machines Lab, a venture started by former OpenAI executive Mira Murati.
And now, amid reporting that Zuckerberg's micromanaging already has the company's AI efforts crumbling into internal chaos, it sounds like the Facebook parent company is already bleeding some of the talent that Zuckerberg paid top dollar to acquire. As Wired reports, at least three staffers have already punched out for good. Gone are Avi Verma and Ethan Knight, both poached from OpenAI - and both of whom are now headed back there after a taste of Zuckerberg's management style, according to the magazine.
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