Meta's newly established Superintelligence Labs has seen multiple AI researchers resign just two months after its inception. The lab, which was personally pushed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, aims to attract top AI talent and quickly catch up with competitors in the artificial intelligence field.
It is reported that at least three researchers have already resigned from Meta, including two who previously worked at OpenAI, Avi Verma and Ethan Knight. They left Meta within a month of joining and returned to OpenAI. Avi Verma was a researcher at OpenAI, while Ethan Knight joined Meta from Elon Musk's xAI company.
The third researcher, Rishabh Agarwal, also announced his resignation on social media. He joined Meta in April, initially focusing on generative AI projects, but later moved to the Superintelligence Labs. Although the reason for Agarwal's resignation remains unclear, he currently resides in Canada, while Meta's AI team is mainly based in Menlo Park, California.
On social media, Agarwal stated that although working in the new lab with excellent talents and technical resources, he made a difficult decision to face different challenges. A Meta spokesperson, Dave Arnold, said it is common for many people to choose to stay in their current positions rather than switch jobs after going through intense hiring processes.
In addition, Meta lost another leader, Chaya Nayak, who served as the Director of Generative AI Product Management and has now joined OpenAI for special projects. Verma and Knight did not respond to the resignation issue, and Nayak has not commented as of the deadline.
These departures are a strong warning about the initial situation of Meta's Superintelligence Labs. Zuckerberg once tried to attract talent with high nine-figure salaries, aiming to quickly narrow the gap in the competition for general AI research. However, Meta's senior management seems to be facing difficulties in addressing bureaucratic issues and recruitment challenges related to AI projects. The company has recently reorganized its AI team several times, with the latest being the division of employees into four groups.
Although Meta has made a series of efforts in talent recruitment, it has recently started to slow down the hiring process, indicating a shift in human resources strategy. At the same time, Meta has also reached some cooperation agreements with other AI startups, further promoting its research and development. New Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang mentioned in a recent statement that the company has reached a technical cooperation agreement with Midjourney, which focuses on AI-generated images and videos.
Key Points:
📉 Three researchers resigned, some returning to OpenAI, showing serious talent loss in Meta's Superintelligence Labs.
🚀 Meta's executive recruitment measures failed to stabilize the team, facing challenges with bureaucratic issues and organizational restructuring.
🤝 Meta has partnered with other AI startups, actively promoting research and development, seeking breakthroughs in transformation.
