Meta CEO Zuckerberg Recruits 50-Person AI Team Amid Rival Competition

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, is reportedly personally recruiting for a new 50-person “Superintelligence” AI team. This initiative aims to help Meta gain ground on rivals such as Google and OpenAI. The plan includes hiring a new head of AI research to work alongside Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, who is being brought in as part of a strategy to invest up to $15 billion for a 49% stake in the training data company.

On the surface, it might seem that Zuckerberg could easily attract top AI talent by offering substantial financial incentives. The compensation packages being offered are reportedly significant, with some sources indicating that Zuckerberg has tried to recruit potential hires with offers of $2 million per year, primarily in the form of equity.

However, money alone may not be sufficient to build the kind of AI model shop Meta needs. Several researchers have reportedly turned down Zuckerberg’s offers to take roles at OpenAI and Anthropic. There are several factors at play: the limited number of top AI researchers, many of whom are already employed at leading AI labs with high salaries and ample computing resources.

Beyond financial incentives, personal ties to leading figures and differing philosophies about artificial intelligence have added a tribal element to Silicon Valley’s AI talent wars. For example, more than 19 OpenAI employees followed Mira Murati to her startup Thinking Machines earlier this year. Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees who disagreed with their employer’s strategic direction.

Meta’s own sweeping layoffs earlier this year could also impact its ability to attract AI talent. In January, Zuckerberg announced plans to focus on developing AI, smart glasses, and the future of social media, which resulted in the layoff of about 3,600 employees—roughly 5% of Meta’s workforce. One AI researcher mentioned that people do not trust Meta after these layoffs.

Meta’s existing advanced AI research team, FAIR (Fundamental AI Research), has increasingly been sidelined in the development of Meta’s Llama AI models and has lost key researchers. Joelle Pineau, who had been leading FAIR, announced her departure in April. Most of the researchers who developed Meta’s original Llama model have left, including two cofounders of French AI startup Mistral. Additionally, a trio of top AI researchers left a year ago to found AI agent startup Yutori.

Prestige is another hard-to-quantify issue. Erik Meijer, a former senior director of engineering at Meta, expressed doubt that Meta could produce AI products that experts in the field would perceive as embodying breakthrough capabilities. He noted that huge salaries and additional equity “will not stick if the company feels unstable or if it is perceived by peers as a black mark on your resume. Prestige compounds, that is why top people self-select into labs like DeepMind, OpenAI, or Anthropic. Aura is not for sale.”

While Zuckerberg’s financial offers may attract some top AI talent, the question remains whether it will be enough to deliver the AI product wins Meta needs. The company faces significant challenges in competing with rivals like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic, which have established reputations and strong research teams.