Meta poaches top researchers from Google, Sesame for new AI lab: Sources

Straits Times

a day ago

Meta is offering pay packages worth tens of millions of US dollars over several years, including shares, sources say. PHOTO: AFP
San Francisco – Meta Platforms has poached top engineers from multiple tech firms, including Alphabet's Google, for a new team focused on achieving a more advanced form of AI called artificial general intelligence.
Jack Rae, a principal researcher at Google DeepMind, is expected to join Meta's 'superintelligence' team, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Meta has also recruited Johan Schalkwyk, a machine learning lead at AI voice start-up Sesame AI, other people said.
Alexandr Wang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Scale AI, is also expected to be part of the team after Meta finalises a multibillion-dollar investment in the data labelling start-up that could be announced as soon as this week.
The new group is part of an ambitious, and costly, effort by Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg to gain ground on rivals like Google and OpenAI after he was frustrated by the poor reception to the company's latest AI offering, Llama 4. Mr Zuckerberg hopes the new hires can help improve Llama's models and build better AI tools for voice and personalisation features.
Meta and Mr Zuckerberg are offering compensation packages worth tens of millions of dollars over several years, including equity, according to people familiar with the matter. A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment.
Mr Rae confirmed he's leaving Google for Meta, but declined to comment further. Mr Schalkwyk did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr Zuckerberg has begun recruiting a brain trust of AI researchers and engineers, at times meeting with candidates at his homes in Lake Tahoe and Palo Alto, California, Bloomberg News first reported. Often, the CEO has reached out to potential hires directly, according to people familiar with the process. Meta aims to hire around 50 people for the new team, including a chief scientist to help oversee the group, one person said.
The team is coming together as Meta is also nearing a deal to invest billions of dollars in Scale to bolster its AI efforts. Scale uses an army of contractors to label the data that tech firms such as Meta and OpenAI need to train and improve their AI models.
Mr Wang, Scale's 28-year-old CEO, is an influential figure in the industry who has cultivated close ties with some in Washington. Other employees from Scale are likely to join Meta's superintelligence team after the investment is finalised, one person familiar with the deal said. Scale is considering appointing Jason Droege, its chief strategy officer, as CEO after the deal closes, according to people familiar with the matter.
'There are very few people globally who can do those type of large AI trainings very, very efficiently,' said Vahan Petrosyan, co-founder of SuperAnnotate, an AI data platform. For that reason, he said, higher pay packages may make sense for companies like Meta.
Still, not everyone is jumping at Mr Zuckerberg's recruitment push. Meta unsuccessfully tried to poach Koray Kavukcuoglu, one of Google's top AI researchers, as well as Noam Brown, a leading researcher at OpenAI, according to a person familiar with the effort.
Meanwhile, some of Meta's competitors appear to be offering new incentives for their AI researchers to stay. Google named Mr Kavukcuoglu as its chief AI architect – a new senior vice president role that reports directly to CEO Sundar Pichai, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg News. Mr Kavukcuoglu will continue to serve as the generative AI unit lead and chief technology officer of Google DeepMind, Mr Pichai said in the memo. BLOOMBERG
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