According to AI engineers, the Openai offer immediately sparked interest from the meta

Meta makes headlines Poaching leading AI researchers And provide some Reward Package That's how you get to the number of nine people. employment AI-centric software engineer Big technology is becoming fiercely competitive AI Startup.

This essay is based on a conversation with Yangshun Tay, a 35-year-old AI engineer in Singapore. Tay previously worked for Meta for 5 years, but is currently running Great Frontenda startup that helps software developers improve their skills.

This interview has been compiled for length and clarity. Meta and Openai did not respond to requests for comment.

I interviewed Openai a while ago and decided to post about their offer on Tuesday. Within the next 12 hours, Meta sent me an email congratulating me on my Openai offer and asking if I was interested in working with them.

What was interesting to me was that I first thought they didn't know I had worked for Meta before. However, when I responded to their email, they actually noticed that they knew my background there. They knew exactly who I was.

I worked at Meta for over five years before set out to build my own company, Great Frontend. There are about 10 people now, but they are not trying to scale very much. We continue to do it while we explore new ideas and products.

Meta is not leading the AI race

I don't actually have a background in AI research, so I was very surprised that Meta reached out so quickly. I'm more on the applied engineering side. Even in Openai's role, it's for software engineering, building ChatGpt and working with those teams. So I was also surprised that Meta had hired for an AI engineering position.

But I'm probably not back in meta. Despite having made many well-known recruits, I don't think they're leading the AI race right now. After working for over 5 years, I'm not so bullish on Meta.

Anyway, meta outreach wasn't actually an offer. I've been there for over two years, so if you want to participate, you'll need to reinterview.

The opportunity cost of being an employee is high

It's great to be in demand as an AI engineer, but it's also a bit stressful, so I don't know if it's sustainable or not. To be honest, I want to build my own right now. You might start a new AI product or venture.

Because AI is moving so fast, the opportunity costs of being an employee are very high. By becoming an employee and building ideas for someone else, you lose out on the opportunity to build products that can ultimately grow very large.

I think it's great for top talent, but there are also many engineers who struggle to find a job. Based on my experience, advances in AI really rely on breakthroughs that come from just a few people. It's not necessary too much. Only smart and cream-off creamers to have a big breakthrough and very disproportionate impact. So Meta is pleased to pay large sums to top talent.

However, talent moves around very frequently in the Bay Area between tech companies. Even if there is a breakthrough in the meta, it won't stay within the meta wall for long. All large companies are now building their own AI models. Model arm races are currently being held. In terms of benchmarking, we see companies banging each other every other day.

I think it's overall good for humanity and AI advances, so meta actually gives everyone a favor.

AI is changing the way teams work

Many CEOs claim that they are replacing the workforce with AI, and people without special skills are undoubtedly at greater risk. AI is well practiced and is good at doing what's been done many times. Many of the work in software engineering falls into this category. There is already a solution. You need someone to implement it.

AI handles that well. This will encourage people to focus on what's more important: creativity and innovation. That's where the top talent comes in – they're innovative.

Currently, employment circumstances are not close to what we have experienced in the past few years in Meta. The pay was great back then, but there was nowhere Meta is currently paying AI talent.

I posted this to raise my profile

Meta wasn't the only one who reached out after posting about Openai's offer. Several other companies were mostly small businesses I've never heard of and sent cold emails.

Posts about offers are now more for marketing purposes. My plan was to say I have some offers but I haven't taken them. It's just for future projects, uploading my profile.

I was seriously considering joining Openai, but in the end I think the timing is too good. Now is the perfect time to start a company.

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