&w=3840&q=100)
Meta recruits leading OpenAI researcher Trapit Bansal for AI reasoning lab
Meta has onboarded a prominent OpenAI researcher, Trapit Bansal, to work on advanced aritificial intelligence (AI) reasoning models within its recently established AI superintelligence team, according to a report by TechCrunch.
Trapit Bansal had been with OpenAI since 2022 and played a major role in launching the company's reinforcement learning research, working closely with co-founder Ilya Sutskever. He is named as one of the original contributors to OpenAI's first AI reasoning model, known as o1.
His LinkedIn profile indicates that he left OpenAI in June. OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood confirmed to TechCrunch that Bansal had indeed exited the organisation.
Boost to Meta's AI superintelligence team
Bansal is expected to significantly strengthen Meta's new AI superintelligence group, which already includes notable figures such as former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. The team is also in discussions to bring in former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Safe Superintelligence co-founder Daniel Gross.
His expertise could help Meta develop a cutting-edge AI reasoning model to compete with leading offerings like OpenAI's o3 and DeepSeek's R1. At present, Meta does not have a publicly available AI reasoning model.
Zuckerberg's high-profile hiring strategy
In recent months, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has aggressively recruited top AI talent, reportedly offering compensation packages as high as $100 million. While Bansal's offer remains undisclosed, his decision to join indicates the success of Zuckerberg's strategy in attracting leading AI researchers.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Bansal will join other recent hires from OpenAI — Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai — at Meta. The team also includes Jack Rae, formerly of Google DeepMind, and Johan Schalkwyk, previously with startup Sesame, according to a Bloomberg report.
Attempts to acquire AI startups fell through
In a bid to expand its AI capabilities further, Meta also explored acquiring startups known for their AI research, including Safe Superintelligence (co-founded by Sutskever), Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Labs, and Perplexity. However, none of these talks reached a final agreement.
On a recent podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman commented on Meta's recruitment attempts, stating, 'None of our best people have decided to take him up on that.'
AI reasoning a critical focus for Meta
Developing powerful AI reasoning models is essential for Meta's new unit. Over the past year, firms such as OpenAI, Google, and DeepSeek have released high-performing models that can tackle complex tasks by reasoning through problems before producing answers.
This approach, which makes use of additional computation time and resources, has led to improved performance both in benchmarks and in real-world applications.
Future ambitions for Meta's AI lab
Meta's AI superintelligence group is expected to become a crucial part of its wider operations, similar to the role DeepMind plays within Google. The company has plans to develop AI agents for enterprise use, led by Clara Shih, the former Salesforce CEO of AI.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Economic Times
16 minutes ago
- Economic Times
SoftBank aims to become leading 'artificial super intelligence' platform provider
SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son said on Friday that he wants the investment group to become the biggest platform provider for "artificial super intelligence" within the next 10 years."We want to become the organiser of the industry in the artificial super intelligence era," Son told shareholders at the group's annual shareholder meeting. Son likened his aim to the position of dominant technology platform providers such as Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet's Google, who benefit from a "winner takes all" dynamic. At previous public appearances Son has described artificial super intelligence as exceeding human capabilities by a factor of 10,000. The technology investment group has returned to making the aggressive investments that made Son's name and fortune, such as an early bet on Alibaba, but at times spectacularly backfired, like failed shared office provider WeWork. SoftBank's mammoth investments related to artificial intelligence in 2025 include acquiring U.S. semiconductor design company Ampere for $6.5 billion and the underwriting of up to $40 billion of new investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Son said Softbank's total agreed investment in OpenAI now stood at $32 billion and that he expected OpenAI to eventually list publicly."I'm all in on OpenAI," Son said.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
32 minutes ago
- Business Standard
SoftBank aims to become top artificial super intelligence platform provider
SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son on Friday said he wants the Japanese technology investment group to become the biggest platform provider for "artificial super intelligence" within the next 10 years. "We want to become the organiser of the industry in the artificial super intelligence era," Son told shareholders at the group's annual shareholder meeting. Son likened his aim to the position of dominant technology platform providers such as Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet's Google, which benefit from a "winner takes all" dynamic. At previous public appearances Son has described artificial super intelligence as AI technology that is able to exceed human capabilities by a factor of 10,000. SoftBank has returned to making the aggressive investments that made Son's name, such as an early bet on Alibaba, but that at times spectacularly backfired, like its massive investment in failed shared office provider WeWork. Its AI-related deals this year include acquiring US semiconductor designer Ampere for $6.5 billion and the underwriting of up to $40 billion of new investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Son said SoftBank's total agreed investment in OpenAI now stood at $32 billion since first investing in Autumn 2024 and that he regretted not investing earlier. He also said he expected OpenAI to eventually list publicly. "I'm all in on OpenAI," Son said. SoftBank had owned around 5 per cent of Nvidia until it sold the stake in 2019, before ChatGPT generated a surge in AI interest at the end of 2022. Nvidia now dominates AI chipmaking and has become one of the world's most valuable companies. Son's latest spending spree follows years of retrenchment after the high-growth tech startups into which SoftBank had invested billions of dollars through its Vision Fund investment vehicles crashed in value from 2022. Fortunes changed again when SoftBank raised some $5 billion listing chip designer Arm in September 2023. The rise in the British firm's share price since has boosted the group's assets, against which SoftBank can take out debt to fund new investment. Son said SoftBank was committed to prudent investment and that, throughout the peaks and troughs, SoftBank has maintained the financial resources and user base such that it can take risks at times. Earlier in June it raised $4.8 billion from the sale of some shares in T-Mobile. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Express
35 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Brazil's Supreme Court clears way to hold social media companies liable for user content
Brazil's Supreme Court agreed on Thursday on details of a decision to hold social media companies liable for what their users post, clearing the way for it go into effect within weeks. The 8-3 vote in Brazil's top court orders tech giants like Google, Meta and TikTok to actively monitor content that involves hate speech, racism and incitation to violence and act to remove it. The case has unsettled the relationship between the South American nation and the US government. Critics have expressed concern that the move could threaten free speech if platforms preemptively remove content that could be problematic. After Thursday's ruling is published by the court, people will be able to sue social media companies for hosting illegal content if they refuse to remove it after a victim brings it to their attention. The court didn't set out firm rules on what content is illegal, leaving it to be decided on a case-by-case basis. The ruling strengthens a law that requires companies to remove content only after court orders, which were often ignored. It's the product of two cases accepted by the court last year in which social media companies were accused of failed to act against users promoting fraud, child pornography and violence. A majority of the 11 justices voted to approve the change two weeks ago, but it took until today to reach consensus on how to implement it. The justices also agreed that social media companies will not be liable if they can show they took steps to remove illegal content in a timely fashion. Google said in a statement that is analyzing the court's decision. 'We remain open for dialogue,' the company said. Brazil's top court came to the decision after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned of possible visa restrictions against foreign officials involved in censoring American citizens. Thursday's ruling brings Brazil's approach to big tech closer to the European Union's approach, which has sought to rein in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms.
