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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
OpenAI and DeepMind are losing engineers to Anthropic in a one-sided talent war
Anthropic is making gains in the AI talent war, poaching top engineers from OpenAI and DeepMind. Rival companies have been scrambling to retain elite AI researchers with sky-high pay and strict non-competes. Anthropic is emerging as a leader in the AI talent wars, siphoning top talent from some of its biggest rivals. That's according to Venture Capital firm SignalFire's recently released 2025 State of Talent report, which analyzed tech hiring and employment trends. The report found that engineers from OpenAI and DeepMind were increasingly more likely to jump ship to Anthropic than the reverse. Engineers at OpenAI were 8 times more likely to leave the company for Anthropic, while at DeepMind, that ratio was almost 11:1 in Anthropic's favor. Anthropic also leads the AI industry in talent retention with an 80% retention rate for employees hired over the last 2 years. DeepMind follows closely behind with 78% while OpenAI's retention rate trails at 67%, more aligned with larger Big Tech companies such as Meta (64%). Some of the enthusiasm around Anthropic is to be expected; the company is a buzzy, relatively new startup. It was founded just three years ago, in 2021, by a group of former OpenAI employees who were reportedly concerned about their former employer rapidly scaling its technology without sufficient safeguards. Over the past few years, Anthropic has attempted to foster a culture that gives employees more autonomy, in part to combat some Big Tech companies' inflated salaries and brand cachet. According to SignalFire's report, Anthropic employees say the company embraces intellectual discourse and researcher autonomy. It also offers other talent draws, including flexible work options and clear paths for career growth. The company's flagship family of LLMs, Claude, has also emerged as a favorite with developers, which could influence some of the talent movement. Anthropic's latest AI models outperformed OpenAI's and Google's top models on key software engineering benchmarks. The company labeled its recently released Opus 4 model 'the world's best coding model.' The company's commitment to AI safety appears to have also attracted some top engineers. Notable AI researcher, Jan Leike, defected to Anthropic from OpenAI last year, criticizing his former employer for focusing on 'shiny products' over AI safety on the way out. Ex-Google researchers like Niki Parmar and Neil Houlsby have also jumped ship to the startup. The demand for leading researchers has massively outpaced the supply as AI labs vie to build more advanced models and outpace each other in a high-stakes AI arms race. This has made the battle for top AI talent increasingly competitive and forced some tech companies to employ creative strategies to attract elite engineers. Google DeepMind, for example, is reportedly enforcing 6—to 12-month non-compete clauses that bar some AI researchers from joining rival firms. During this time, the engineers continue to receive their normal salaries despite having no active work. Over at OpenAI, some top AI researchers can earn more than $10 million a year. The company's counteroffers to stop employees from joining OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever's SSI have also reportedly reached more than $2 million in retention bonuses, in addition to equity increases of $20 million or more, per Reuters. OpenAI's former CTO, Mira Murati's departure from the company has caused further talent headaches. Murati has quietly built a 60-person team to launch her rival startup, pulling in 20 staffers from OpenAI before even announcing the venture in February, according to sources who spoke to Reuters. This story was originally featured on
Business Insider
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says he wants his 7-year-old to use AI every day, calling it a 'superpower'
Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says he's all in on AI — especially when it comes to his 7-year-old daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. "I wholeheartedly want Olympia using it every day," he said on an episode of the podcast "Possible" published Wednesday. "I genuinely am so awed by the fact that super intelligence will be a commodity for her," he added. Ohanian, who is married to tennis superstar Serena Williams, described how he's already using AI to fuel their daughter's creativity. The investor and entrepreneur dug up some of his own childhood pencil sketches — even half-finished ones — and ran them through ChatGPT with Olympia to bring them to life. The AI turned his drawings into "full-color illustrations." "It was just so wild to see her reaction to it," said Ohanian. He and Williams also have a one-year-old daughter, Adira River Ohanian. Olympia still draws the old-fashioned way — with markers on paper — but now, they can "level up" that art together using AI. The pair can "make it fly through space," he said. "I want her to understand that this is a superpower that she should have," he added. The founder of VC firm Seven Seven Six also said he encourages parents to use educational AI tools like Synthesis to help with homework, which has been "going pretty well" for Olympia. "I still need her to know the fundamentals of reading and writing and arithmetic," he said. "But I want her to know that the raw intelligence part has been solved for her." "Now, it's going to be about her agency and her grit and her creativity," he added. AI for children Not every tech exec shares Ohanian's tech enthusiasm for their kids. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for one, has said he doesn't want his baby son to form a best-friend bond with an AI chatbot. He said earlier this month that children should have "a much higher level of protection" than adults when it comes to using AI tools. Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt also said last year that AI could shape a child's identity and culture. He called on tech leaders to set safety standards. Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has said he doesn't want his three young kids "sitting in front of a TV or a computer for a long period of time." Still, AI is quickly becoming part of everyday life — even for children. Companies are rushing to add AI chat elements to their consumer apps and services, including ones for kids and teens. Tech giants like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google have also promoted how their AI tools can support learning. Some educators told Business Insider last year that they welcome the use of AI in classrooms. "Children in the future will only know a world with AI in it," Altman said in January.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Taiwan could use kamikaze boats to protect itself from a Chinese invasion
Ukraine has been using exploding Magura sea drones to attack Russia's naval fleet. Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Taiwan could do something similar to protect itself against China. Schmidt said the boats act like "torpedoes" that could stop China from a land invasion of Taiwan. Former Google CEO-turned-"licensed arms dealer" Eric Schmidt believes Taiwan could take a page from the ongoing Ukraine war. At the Milken Institute Global Conference on Tuesday, Schmidt said the Ukraine-Russia war has fundamentally changed how wars are fought, as countries rely more on remote-controlled drones to fight their battles. Schmidt, who now leads Relativity Space, a rocket startup, said the recent conflict should push the US to rethink its assumptions around how Taiwan will defend itself against a potential invasion by China. "Do you really think that we're going to defend Taiwan with all of our aircraft carriers?" Schmidt said. "Let me remind you that we have no particularly good defenses against hypersonic missiles. Nobody has. It's a very hard problem. And those aircraft carriers used to be hard to find, but now they're easy to find because everybody has these LEO constellations for surveillance," he added, referring to low-earth orbit satellites. Schmidt said one way to deter China's option of leading a land invasion against the neighboring country is to use exploding sea drones similar to the ones Ukraine has been using against Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine has been using homemade, uncrewed multi-purpose surface vessels called Magura to stifle Russia's naval fleet, a major accomplishment considering Ukraine doesn't operate any warships in its navy. The Magura sea drones have multiple functions, including surveillance and reconnaissance, but they've also been used to take out a helicopter and slam into a Russian military speedboat. Schmidt said that a company could build similar boats that could "sink even a few feet below the water and then serve as the equivalent of torpedoes." "I don't run a company in this space, but I would build those boats, get the military to purchase them, and then stage them such that it would not allow for a land invasion by China of Taiwan," he said. "Take away one of their options. Easy." Schmidt has previously said that drones are the future of warfare. Forbes reported last year that the tech investor has been secretly testing AI-guided military drones on the front lines in Ukraine. "For thousands of years, we've had the notion of, stereotypically, a man and a gun fighting another man and a gun, with a horse or what have you," he said at the Milken panel. "We're now breaking that connection forever, because the war will be prosecuted over the internet in one form or another." Schmidt's representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Read the original article on Business Insider
Reuters
05-02-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Jonathan Stempel
1729 results U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled an expanded 14-count indictment accusing former Google software engineer Linwei Ding of stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets to benefit two Chinese companies he was secretly working for. Ex-Google engineer faces new US charges he stole AI secrets for Chinese companies · The Delaware Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a decision involving TripAdvisor that could make it easier for some companies to move out of the state, which is the corporate home for about two-thirds of the Fortune 500. Delaware Supreme Court eases path for some companies to leave state Legalcategory ·6:09 PM EST Target has been sued for allegedly concealing the risks of its diversity and social initiatives, leading to a backlash that caused customers to flee and the stock price of the Minneapolis-based retailer to plummet. Target is sued for defrauding shareholders about DEI Businesscategory ·6:05 PM EST The family of an American killed when a Malaysian Airlines plane was shot down over Ukraine in 2014 can sue Russia's largest bank for allegedly providing money transfers to a group blamed for downing the plane, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday. Family of American killed on Malaysian Airlines flight can sue Russian bank, US court rules Legalcategory ·2:16 PM EST The University of California system was sued on Monday by a student group for alleged racial discrimination in admissions by favoring Black and Hispanic applicants over Asian-American and white applicants. University of California sued over alleged racial discrimination in admissions Legalcategory ·February 3, 2025 The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is refusing to defend Biden administration-era rules in court after its director was fired by President Donald Trump. US consumer bureau won't defend Biden-era rules in court after chief was fired Businesscategory ·February 3, 2025 A proposed class action accusing Microsoft's LinkedIn of violating the privacy of millions of Premium customers by disclosing their private messages to train generative artificial intelligence models has been dismissed. LinkedIn lawsuit over use of customer data for AI models is dismissed Legalcategory ·January 31, 2025 A federal appeals court on Thursday restored a U.S. agency rule restricting lobster and Jonah crab fishing off the Massachusetts coast to protect endangered whales, rejecting a claim that the agency did not deserve deference under a recent landmark Supreme Court case. Massachusetts lobster fishing limits to protect whales restored by appeals court January 30, 2025 Netspend, a provider of reloadable debit and payroll cards, will pay about $1.1 million to settle New York state accusations it illegally charged low-income customers exorbitant interest rates on paycheck advances and let debt collectors seize their funds. Netspend to compensate overcharged customers in New York settlement Businesscategory ·January 30, 2025 A federal judge ordered an end to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's 16-year-old lawsuit over Allen Stanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme, directing the financier and two former colleagues to pay sums that will go largely uncollected. US SEC case over massive Allen Stanford fraud ends, judge orders fines Legalcategory ·January 30, 2025 was sued on Wednesday by consumers who accused the retailing giant of secretly tracking their movements through their cellphones, and selling data it collects. Lawsuit accuses Amazon of secretly tracking consumers through cellphones Legalcategory ·January 29, 2025 KuCoin, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, pleaded guilty on Monday to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, and agreed to more than $297 million in fines and forfeiture, the U.S. Department of Justice said. KuCoin pleads guilty, agrees to pay nearly $300 million in US crypto case Technologycategory ·January 27, 2025 Citigroup can force military personnel to arbitrate claims that its Citibank unit charged unfairly high interest rates on their credit card balances after they returned to civilian life, a federal appeals court panel ruled on Monday. Citigroup wins appeal against military personnel over credit card rates Legalcategory ·January 27, 2025 Novo Nordisk agreed to cap insulin prices to settle a lawsuit in which Minnesota's attorney general accused the three largest insulin makers of charging astronomically high prices for the diabetes drug. Novo Nordisk to cap insulin prices in Minnesota settlement; joins Lilly, Sanofi January 27, 2025 Elon Musk asked a federal judge to dismiss a proposed class action by voters who said the world's richest person defrauded them into signing a petition to support the U.S. Constitution for a chance to win his $1 million-a-day giveaway. Elon Musk says $1 million election giveaway wasn't an illegal lottery Legalcategory ·January 27, 2025 Ben & Jerry's wants a court order freeing the board to continue oversight of its social mission, and requiring Unilever to honor its commitment to make $25 million of payments to groups chosen by the ice cream company. Ben & Jerry's accuses Unilever of muzzling it because of Trump Legalcategory ·January 27, 2025 Pfizer will pay $59.7 million to resolve charges that a company it acquired defrauded Medicare and other healthcare programs by paying kickbacks so doctors would prescribe the migraine drug Nurtec ODT, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday. Pfizer to pay $59.7 million over kickbacks for migraine drug Legalcategory ·January 24, 2025 The founder of GameOn, a San Francisco artificial intelligence startup, has been indicted for running a "brazen and wide-ranging" six-year fraud that cost the company and investors more than $60 million, federal prosecutors said on Thursday. Founder of AI chatbot startup GameOn indicted for fraud in San Francisco Legalcategory ·January 23, 2025 PayPal will pay a $2 million civil fine over cybersecurity failures that led to the exposure of customers' Social Security numbers in late 2022, New York state's Department of Financial Services said on Thursday. PayPal fined by New York for cybersecurity failures Technologycategory ·January 23, 2025 Microsoft's LinkedIn has been sued by Premium customers who said the business-focused social media platform disclosed their private messages to third parties without permission to train generative artificial intelligence models. Litigationcategory ·January 22, 2025
