Meta forms elite AI unit with $14B war chest
According to The Wall Street Journal, Mark Zuckerberg has personally contacted hundreds of AI researchers and engineers through emails and WhatsApp messages to recruit for a new Superintelligence lab, offering substantial financial incentives, including packages potentially reaching $100 million, to attract talent to Meta Platforms.
Some individuals who received messages from Zuckerberg initially doubted their authenticity, with one person assuming the outreach was a hoax and delaying their response for several days. These recruitment efforts involve sums of money that could establish them as some of the most expensive hires in the technology sector’s history. While significant financial offers have been extended, some potential candidates have expressed hesitation regarding Meta Platforms’ AI endeavors, citing challenges faced by the company’s AI initiatives this year and organizational restructures that have created uncertainty about internal leadership roles.
Meta’s struggles in developing advanced artificial intelligence technology became evident in April, following accusations that the company manipulated a leaderboard to enhance the perceived performance of a recently released AI model. The company also postponed the unveiling of a new, flagship AI model, prompting questions about its sustained ability to advance swiftly in the industry-wide AI arms race.
To address these issues, Zuckerberg has assumed an active role in recruitment. He has attempted to recruit OpenAI co-founder John Schulman and Bill Peebles, a co-creator of OpenAI’s Sora video generator; neither joined Meta. Zuckerberg also sought to recruit OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. Meta invested in Sutskever’s new AI startup, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), earlier this year. Meta is additionally in discussions to hire Daniel Gross, SSI’s CEO, and Nat Friedman, a former GitHub CEO and Microsoft executive. These discussions include Meta’s offer to acquire portions of their venture fund, with the intent for Gross and Friedman to develop new AI products at Meta. Zuckerberg also conducted discussions with Perplexity and offered to acquire the AI search startup.
Zuckerberg committed $14 billion for a stake in AI startup Scale and its CEO, Alexandr Wang, aged 28, who is slated to lead the new AI team being assembled by Zuckerberg. This transaction effectively designates Wang as one of the most financially significant hires in history. The overall success of these recruitment efforts beyond the Scale deal and a limited number of other hires remains unconfirmed. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated publicly that his top personnel remain with his company. OpenAI has issued counteroffers, providing increased compensation and expanded job responsibilities, to retain employees targeted by Meta’s recruitment attempts.
For individuals who declined Meta’s offers, Zuckerberg’s stated vision for his new AI team also raised concerns. The team, projected to consist of approximately 50 members, is tasked with achieving substantial advancements in AI models, including the development of “superintelligence.” Some potential recruits found this concept vague or lacking a specific execution plan beyond the hiring drive.
Potential hires and current Meta AI employees also highlighted a point of disagreement concerning Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, who expresses skepticism about the fundamental approach to AI advancement currently adopted by Meta and other industry participants. LeCun, whom Zuckerberg recruited in 2013 to lead a newly established AI research division, does not believe that the large language models under development will lead to artificial intelligence surpassing human intellect.
The turning point for Zuckerberg’s intensified focus on AI recruitment occurred last spring after an AI model release did not meet expectations. Company insiders report that Zuckerberg has never demonstrated such a concentrated effort on recruiting. Zuckerberg participates in a WhatsApp chat named “Recruiting Party” with Ruta Singh, a Meta executive overseeing recruiting, and Janelle Gale, the company’s head of people.
Zuckerberg also engages directly with detailed AI research papers, seeking to identify key contributors in the field. He operates on the principle that recruiting the most knowledgeable individuals will lead to introductions within their professional networks. When the “Recruiting Party” chat identifies targets, Zuckerberg ascertains their preferred communication methods and initiates contact personally.
Zuckerberg has assumed direct control over recruiting, recognizing it as an area where his personal involvement has significant leverage within the company he founded; a direct email from him carries more weight than outreach from a third-party recruiter. Once researchers confirm the authenticity of the CEO’s outreach, Zuckerberg frequently hosts them for meals at his residences in Palo Alto, California, and Lake Tahoe. He maintains involvement throughout the recruiting process, extending to planning their desk locations.
He assures researchers of ample computing power and funding at Meta, emphasizing that their work will be supported by hundreds of billions of dollars in advertising revenue and the company’s extensive access to powerful chips. However, the ultimate efficacy of this strategy, combining personal engagement with substantial financial incentives, remains to be seen. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has publicly dismissed the success of Zuckerberg’s recruiting efforts, stating, “At least so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that.”