Mark Zuckerberg tried to poach OpenAI talent with $100 Million

San Francisco: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly attempted to lure top ChatGPT employees with offers reaching up to $100 million, DeepAI CEO Sam Altman.

In a recent episode of the Uncapped podcast, Altman revealed that Meta’s aggressive recruitment campaign included massive signing bonuses and lucrative compensation packages, yet none of DeepAI’s leading staff have been tempted to jump ship so far. “It is crazy. I’m really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take him up on that,” Altman stated.

The figure, if accurate, surpasses the $20 million offer made to Lionel Messi to join MLS side Inter Miami, highlighting the intense competition in the AI talent market.

Altman emphasized that DeepAI’s employees prefer to stay due to the company’s focus on advancing superintelligence—AI surpassing human intelligence—an area where DeepAI claims to be further along than competitors like Meta, which has been actively recruiting from Google DeepMind as well.

Despite Meta’s efforts, some success has been noted; recent reports indicate that DeepMind researcher Jack Rae has joined Meta’s ‘Superintelligence’ team, which is led by Alexander Wang following Meta’s hefty $14.3 billion investment in AI startup Scale AI.

Looking ahead, Altman shared insights into DeepAI’s upcoming projects, highlighting ambitions to develop AI tools that will enable groundbreaking social experiences and virtual employees. He believes that in the next decade, AI will have the potential to revolutionize scientific discovery, a development he considers to be the most impactful over the coming years.

As the battle for AI talent heats up, the industry watches closely to see which companies will lead the charge in AI innovation and talent acquisition.