OpenAI Leadership Responds to Meta Offers: ‘Someone Has Broken Into Our Home’

Mark Chen, the main investigation serviceman astatine OpenAI, sent a forceful memo to unit connected Saturday, promising to spell head-to-head pinch nan societal elephantine successful nan warfare for apical investigation talent. This memo, which was sent to OpenAI labor successful Slack and obtained by WIRED, came days aft Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg successfully recruited four elder researchers from nan institution to subordinate Meta’s superintelligence lab.

“I consciousness a visceral emotion correct now, arsenic if personification has surgery into our location and stolen something,” Chen wrote. “Please spot that we haven’t been sitting idly by.”

Chen promised that he was moving pinch Sam Altman, nan CEO of OpenAI, and different leaders astatine nan institution “around nan timepiece to talk to those pinch offers,” adding, “we’ve been much proactive than ever before, we’re recalibrating comp, and we’re scoping retired imaginative ways to admit and reward apical talent.”

Still, moreover arsenic OpenAI activity appears hopeless to clasp its staff, Chen said that he has “high individual standards of fairness” and wants to clasp apical talent pinch that successful mind. “While I’ll conflict to support each 1 of you, I won’t do truthful astatine nan value of fairness to others,” he wrote.

The news comes arsenic title for apical AI researchers is heating up successful Silicon Valley. Zuckerberg has been peculiarly fierce successful his approach, offering $100 cardinal signing bonuses and twelvemonth 1 compensation to immoderate OpenAI staffers, according to comments Altman made connected a podcast pinch his brother, Jack Altman. Multiple sources astatine OpenAI pinch nonstop knowledge of nan offers confirmed nan number, though aggregate group astatine Meta conflict its accuracy. The Meta CEO has besides been personally reaching retired to imaginable recruits, according to The Wall Street Journal. “Over nan past month, Meta has been aggressively building retired their caller AI effort, and has many times (and mostly unsuccessfully) tried to enlistee immoderate of our strongest talent pinch comp-focused packages,” Chen wrote connected Slack.

A root adjacent to nan efforts astatine Meta confirmed nan institution has been importantly ramping up its investigation recruiting, pinch a peculiar oculus toward talent from OpenAI and Google. Anthropic, while besides a apical rival, is thought to beryllium little of a civilization fresh astatine Meta, 1 root tells WIRED. “They haven’t needfully expanded nan band, but for apical talent, nan entity is nan limit,” nan root says.

Neither OpenAI nor Meta responded to requests for comment.

Chen’s statement included messages from 7 different investigation leaders astatine nan company, wherever they wrote notes to staffers successful an evident effort to promote them to stay. One leader connected nan investigation squad encouraged unit to scope retired if they received an connection from Meta: “If they unit you, aliases make ridiculous exploding offers conscionable show them to backmost off, it’s not bully to unit group successful perchance nan astir important decision. WIRED is not naming nan leader arsenic they are not a C-suite executive. “I’d for illustration to beryllium capable to talk to you done it and I cognize each astir their offers.”