OpenAI’s leadership team is taking steps to retain top research talent as Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta recruits the company’s staff with lucrative offers.
Wired reports that in an internal memo sent to OpenAI employees on Saturday, Chief Research Officer Mark Chen addressed the recent departure of senior researchers to Meta’s superintelligence lab. The memo, obtained by Wired, reveals the company’s efforts to counter Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recruitment tactics, which allegedly include offering $100 million signing bonuses and substantial first-year compensation packages to some OpenAI staffers.
Chen expressed his disappointment at the loss of talent, stating, “I feel a visceral feeling right now, as if someone has broken into our home and stolen something.” He assured employees that the company’s leadership, including CEO Sam Altman, has been working “around the clock” to retain top talent by recalibrating compensation and exploring creative ways to recognize and reward staff.
Despite the competitive pressure, Chen emphasized his commitment to fairness, noting that he would fight to keep every employee but not at the cost of fairness to others. The memo also included messages from seven other research leaders at OpenAI, encouraging staff to reach out if they received offers from Meta and promising support in their decisionmaking process.
The talent war between OpenAI and Meta comes amidst an intense workload for OpenAI employees, with many reportedly working up to 80 hours per week. In an effort to give staff time to recharge, the company is largely shutting down next week, though executives are still planning to work, according to multiple sources.
Chen cautioned that Meta might take advantage of this downtime to pressure employees into making quick decisions in isolation. He urged staff to remain focused on the company’s primary goal of achieving artificial general intelligence, describing the competition with Meta as a “side quest.”
The memo also revealed that OpenAI is preparing to bring more supercomputers online later this year to support its research efforts. In response to Chen’s message, CEO Sam Altman expressed his gratitude for Chen’s leadership and integrity throughout the process, even when faced with tough decisions.
Read more at Wired here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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