Meta offers one billion Dollars to AI researcher in crazy poaching spree, but they decline

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2 days ago

Meta missed out on the smartphone boom, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn't letting the future of computing slip out of his hands. Alongside XR ( Extended Reality ), the company is throwing ridiculous amounts of money at AI researchers, including a whopping one billion Dollars in one case.
Meta reportedly ( subscription required ) recently approached over a dozen AI researchers working at Thinking Machines Lab. The company wanted them to join its new 'Meta Superintelligence Labs' instead, which is being staffed mostly by all of the AI researchers that are being poached from competitors. One employee was offered a billion Dollars, to be paid out over the course of a few years. Other offers ranged from $500 million to as 'low' as $200 million, which would be paid over four years. Some of the researchers were guaranteed to make up to $100 million in just their first year at Meta alone.But the craziest thing is that no one has taken Meta up on its insane offers. The company just successfully poached a fourth AI researcher from Apple in just the past month, but apparently no one at Thinking Machines Lab was interested.While it's not clear why, anonymous sources claim that it's because the researchers have a problem with Meta's leadership. Salaries at Thinking Machines Lab are around $500,000 a year, so they're not exactly hurting for cash, but a billion Dollars is a ludicrous amount of money that not many could have resisted.
The future of computing, according to Meta. | Image credit — Meta
It's no secret why Meta is so obsessed with AI researchers: Artificial Intelligence will be the backbone of the future of computing that Zuckerberg is trying to usher in: AR glasses.
Meta has poured billions of Dollars into Reality Labs, its XR division. The company is offering affordable VR headsets like the Meta Quest 3, as well as other solutions like the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. In the end, Meta wants to be the first to market with a consumer version of the Orion smart glasses.
And, in my opinion, I think that Zuckerberg is on to something. Apple, Samsung, and Google — as well as some Chinese manufacturers — are all jumping into XR and making AR glasses of their own. If this truly is the future of computing, then Meta is determined to dominate the industry before it even takes off.