Meta made headlines for active employment for top AI researchers, including Openai researchers, but former Openai board member Helen Toner raised questions about how well the company could maintain this talent. Speaking to Bloomberg, Toner said he must either prove that Meta is moving rapidly with AI innovation or face the risk of losing new recruits to rival companies.
Toner, who resigned from Openai's board in November 2023, noted that competition for AI expertise is fierce and that Meta's latest adoption may already be visible to other companies. “They will get attempts to poach them to other companies from day one,” she said in an interview.
Meta recently established a new AI division co-led by Scaleai founder and CEO Alexandr Wang and co-led with former Github CEO Nat Friedman. The team brings together researchers from major AI organizations, including Openai, Google Deepmind and Anthropic.
One of the most popular recruiting is Indian-Origin researcher Trapit Bansal, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur. Bansal, who previously worked at Openai, confirmed the move to meta in a recent post from X, saying, “I'm excited to join Meta! Superintelligence is in sight now.” Openai spokesman Kayla Wood also confirmed his departure from Bansal's company.
Meta certainly made a strong impression with his new lineup of talent, but Toner believes that the real challenge lies ahead. According to her, a key test for meta is not only to attract top minds, but also to create an environment where it can thrive. She warned that egos that clash with internal company politics could get in the way. “There's a lot of organizational politics,” she said.
Toner added that companies like Meta need leadership that is willing to oppose internal resistance when necessary. “It takes a lot of motivation to stare at the powerful people within your company. They probably don't want to tell them you don't actually want to do what they want,” she said. She also questioned whether Mark Zuckerberg's personal involvement in the AI initiative would be sufficient to change the company's working style and promote innovation.
Meta's recent $15 billion investment in Scaleai adds to AI ambitions. As part of the deal, Scaleai's Alexandr Wang is currently the Meta's chief AI officer. With this move, Meta has made it clear that he is serious about building advanced AI systems and competing with the likes of Openai and Google.
However, not everyone is sure that meta's approach will work in the long term. Openai CEO Sam Altman criticized Meta's strategy of offering a massive upfront financial package during his recent podcast appearance. He revealed that Meta is offering Openai employees a bonus worth $100 million. According to Altman, this type of compensation first approach does not produce the right culture. “It's a lot of pre-guaranteed comp strategy and why you say you're going to get someone involved… I don't think that's going to set a great culture,” he said.
While Altman and Toner may have been different in the past in supporting Altman's Ouster from Openai last year, they seem to agree that throwing money at talent isn't enough for a rapidly evolving AI race.
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