Meta’s high-stakes artificial superintelligence team may be off to a rocky start with a handful of employees, including some veterans and a few recent hires, already heading for the exit.
While most of the employees who have jumped ship are long-time researchers and engineers involved in building Meta’s core AI infrastructure, the list also includes individuals who were recruited to be part of the newly formed Meta Superintelligence Lab (MSL), according to a report by Business Insider.
The walkouts come as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg doubles down on his most aggressive AI bet yet, with the formation of the brand new MSL division that is focused on bringing ‘personal superintelligence’ to everyone. The company has poured billions into MSL, luring top AI talent from OpenAI and Google DeepMind with compensation packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
These lavish pay packages for MSL members has reportedly sparked tensions within Meta, especially among those who have been at the company since before its superintelligence push.
“Some attrition is normal for any organization of this size. Most of these employees had been with the company for years, and we wish them the best […] During an intense recruiting process, some people will decide to stay in their current job rather than starting a new one. That’s normal,” a Meta spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report.
List of recent departures
At least eight employees have reportedly left Meta in recent days to take on other pursuits, including the following individuals:
– Bert Maher: Worked at Meta for 12 years. He was involved in building important AI tools and software such as PyTorch and Triton. Maher is reportedly joining Anthropic.
– Tony Liu: Worked at Meta for eight years. He reportedly managed teams working on PyTorch GPU systems.
– Chi-Hao Wu: Worked at Meta for five years as an AI and machine learning specialist. Wu is joining Memories.ai, a startup that uses AI to analyse videos and other visuals, as chief AI officer.
– Aram Markosyan: Worked at Meta for more than four years. His work involved assessing the safety and fairness in large AI models and features of Meta’s smart glasses.
– Chaya Nayak: Worked at Meta for nearly nine years. As Meta’s director of product management for generative AI, she led election transparency and data sharing initiatives while also overseeing the development of the Llama series of AI models. Nayak is joining OpenAI to work on special initiatives.
– Afroz Mohiuddin: Worked at Meta for over a year. He previously worked at Google for more than a decade. Now, Mohiuddin is set to become a member of OpenAI’s technical staff.
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AI researchers Avi Verma and Ethan Knight left MSL after less than a month and returned to their previous roles at OpenAI. Former Google DeepMind researcher Rishabh Agarwal left MSL after just five months to join Periodic Labs, a new startup focused on using AI to discover new physical materials.
Ruben Mayer, Scale AI’s former Senior Vice President of GenAI Product and Operations who was brought over to help run MSL, has also left Meta after just two months, according to a report by TechCrunch.
In June, Meta had announced a $14.3 billion investment in the data-labelling vendor. Alexandr Wang, then-CEO of Scale AI, was tapped to co-lead the MSL team which comprises several former Scale AI employees.
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