Latest news with #Kaplan
International Business Times
3 hours ago
- Business
- International Business Times
Meta's $100 Million AI Bait Faces Resistance as Anthropic, Others Hold Ground
July 23, 2025 12:44 +08 Meta is stepping up its AI recruitment game with enormous compensation packages, reportedly offering up to $100 million to top talent in a bid to power its new "Superintelligence Team." However, not all researchers are biting. According to Anthropic's top brass, many within their AI-focused teams are choosing purpose over pay. Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei recently confirmed Meta's lucrative outreach attempts, and Jared Kaplan, a key executive at the company, opened up about the intensity of the current hiring war in a podcast interview. While not naming companies directly, Kaplan referenced outsized offers that some of his colleagues have turned down. "My best-case scenario at Meta is we make money. My best case at Anthropic is that we affect the future of humanity," he said. Despite the eye-popping numbers, Meta has allegedly offered $100 million over four years per researcher, Kaplan noted that these deals may actually be "cheap" for the business given the value AI breakthroughs can generate. Still, he emphasized that many at Anthropic are mission-driven, prioritizing long-term impact over short-term financial gain. Meta has already made high-profile moves in this space. In June, the company appointed Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to lead its Superintelligence efforts and successfully recruited six researchers from OpenAI. These moves show Meta's aggressive play to dominate next-generation AI. Meanwhile, others in the industry are weighing in. Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, said retaining talent requires more than money. While acknowledging the size of Meta's offers as "surprising," he also noted, "Failure is not an option" at that level of investment. As the AI talent race intensifies, it's becoming clear that for many researchers, the choice isn't just about money—it's about meaning.
Scientific American
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Scientific American
NASA Staff Rebuke White House Cuts in Rare Public Dissent
More than 280 NASA employees past and present, including at least 4 astronauts, have signed a declaration of opposition to the many drastic changes that the administration of US President Donald Trump is working to enact. The declaration also urges the acting head of NASA not to make the unprecedented budget cuts Trump has proposed. 'The last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA's workforce,' reads the employees' letter to interim administrator Sean Duffy. It argues that Trump's changes threaten human safety, scientific progress and global leadership at NASA. The Voyager Declaration joins similar protest documents by employees at other US federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The appeals stem from Trump's sweeping campaign to overhaul the federal government, which has led to mass firings of workers and the proposal of steep cuts to agency budgets. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. The declaration is 'about getting our dissent out to the public and saying, hey — this is what's happening at NASA, and this is not OK', says Ella Kaplan, who has signed the document. Kaplan works on a contract basis as a website administrator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and was speaking on her own behalf and not that of her employer or of NASA. Kaplan says she does not expect Duffy to read the document or to care much about it if he does. When Duffy ran for a seat in the US Congress more than a decade ago, he released a campaign advertisement that featured him wearing lumberjack clothing and saying he would bring his axe to 'topple the big spending in Washington'. The agency is not interested in sustaining 'lower-priority missions', said NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens. 'We must revisit what's working and what's not so that we can inspire the American people again and win the space race.' Staff exodus The Voyager Declaration, named after the twin NASA spacecraft that are exploring interstellar space, protests against staffing cuts at the agency and Trump's proposed cuts to science funding and other NASA budgets. The agency has fired some employees and pressured others to leave, resulting in the loss of more than 2,600 of the 17,000-plus NASA employees, according to news platform Politico. At least US$118 million in NASA grants has been cancelled outright, and the White House has proposed slashing nearly half of the agency's science budget for next year. Congress, which sets US spending, might reject at least some of those proposed cuts. But the managers of many NASA science projects have been asked to draw up plans for winding down their programmes even though Congress hasn't finalized the budget — drawing dissent from the declaration's signers. 'Once operational spacecraft are decommissioned, they cannot be turned back on,' the document says. NASA, like other agencies, is supposed to follow spending priorities laid out by Congress, and Duffy, as interim administrator, could theoretically ignore the White House requests until a budget is finalised. The declaration asserts that since Trump took office, safety has taken a back seat to politics, marking a 'dangerous turn' away from NASA's efforts to make human space flight less risky. Stevens responded that 'NASA will never compromise on safety.' The document's signers also disapprove of the agency's withdrawal from international missions, saying that such actions threaten partnerships with other nations' space agencies. The White House budget proposal, for instance, would cancel NASA participation in European Space Agency missions to Mars and Venus. Dissent by employees at other federal agencies has met with mixed reactions. At the NIH, where more than 480 employees signed a Bethesda Declaration, director Jay Bhattacharya has said he intends to foster respectful dissent. But EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has placed more than 100 signatories to a dissenting document on administrative leave, saying he will not tolerate employees undercutting the president's agenda. Staff at the US National Science Foundation are also planning a declaration, according to a leaked version of the document. Of the 287 signatories to the NASA document, 156 are anonymous.
India Today
20 hours ago
- Business
- India Today
Mark Zuckerberg offered Rs 862 crore salary to lure Anthropic AI engineers, co-founder says his team refused
Meta has been aggressively poaching top AI talent across the industry, offering staggering compensation packages. The company is building its Superintelligence Team and is aiming to dominate the AI field. However, not everyone is taking the bait. Anthropic co-founder and CEO, Dario Amodei, recently revealed that while Meta has dangled offers as high as $100 million (around Rs 862 crore) to recruit top artificial intelligence researchers, his mission-driven team has largely resisted the a recent episode of Lenny's Podcast, Anthropic executive Jared Kaplan opened up about the intense hiring war sweeping the AI industry. Without naming names directly, he pointed to massive signing bonuses offered by the likes of Meta, which he revealed have been turned down by his colleagues. 'They get these offers and then they say, 'Well, of course I'm not going to leave because my best-case scenario at Meta is that we make money, and my best case at Anthropic is we affect the future of humanity,'' Kaplan said. 'To me, it's not a hard choice.'Though he acknowledged that personal circumstances vary, he made it clear that his own priorities lie with Anthropic's long-term mission rather than immediate financial windfalls. 'My best-case scenario at Meta is that we make money, and my best case at Anthropic is we affect the future of humanity and try to make AI flourish and human flourishing go well,' he said. 'For anybody who does get those mega offers and accepts them, I can't say I hold it against them.' When asked about the hefty, outsized compensation packages, Kaplan confirmed the reality. 'I'm pretty sure it's real,' he said when asked about the $100 million signing bonus figure. 'To pay individuals like $100 million over a four-year package—that's actually pretty cheap compared to the value created for the business.'Kaplan's comments come amid the escalating arms race for AI talent. Meta has reportedly been offering unprecedented sums to lure researchers away from rival firms, including OpenAI and Anthropic. In June, Meta even brought in Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to lead a new "superintelligence" unit, alongside six researchers poached from OpenAI. The company is also not shying away from offering nine-figure compensation packages to top AI minds. These packages often include a combination of base salary, substantial signing bonuses, and significant equity the competition, Anthropic says it's been more resilient than most. 'People here are so mission-oriented,' Kaplan said, stressing that many employees aren't swayed by nine-figure offers when they feel they're contributing to something more Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas recently weighed in on the trend, saying companies must offer more than just money to retain top people. 'You're encountering new kinds of challenges. You feel a lot of growth, you're learning new things. And you're getting richer, too, along the way. Why would you want to go just because you have some guaranteed payments?' he Srinivas admitted to being 'surprised by the magnitude' of the offers which Meta has been reportedly sending to poach the employees, He said that with this much of investment, 'failure is (certainly) not an option' for the Meta's team.- Ends
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Facebook-parent Meta refuses to sign EU's AI Code of Practice, here's why
Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApps has officially refused to sign European Union's newly released AI code of Practice. It is a voluntary framework designed to enable companies to comply with the bloc's AI Act. Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan announced this decision via a LinkedIn post. Meta's stance is rooted in concerns that the current framework of the EU's AI code could stifle innovation. Meta denies to comply with European Union's AI code of Practice Meta's vice president of Global Public Policy, Joel Kaplan said in a LinkedIn post that Europe might be 'heading down the wrong path'. He said that the code introduces ''legal uncertainties for model developers' and also impose requirements that go 'far beyond the scope of the AI Act'. 'Europe is heading down the wrong path on AI. We have carefully reviewed the European Commission's Code of Practice for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models and Meta won't be signing it. This Code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for model developers, as well as measures which go far beyond the scope of the AI Act,' wrote Kaplan in a LinkedIn post. 'Businesses and policymakers across Europe have spoken out against this regulation. Earlier this month, 44 of Europe's largest businesses – including Bosch, Siemens, SAP, Airbus and BNP – signed a letter calling for the Commission to 'Stop the Clock' in its implementation. We share concerns raised by these businesses that this over-reach will throttle the development and deployment of frontier AI models in Europe, and stunt European companies looking to build businesses on top of them,' added Kaplan. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like If you have a mouse, play this game for 1 minute Navy Quest Undo What European Union's AI code of Practice requires EU's AI code of Practice requires regular documentation updates for AI tools and it also bans training of AI with paired content. It also needs compliance with content owners' opt-out requests and systemic risk assessments and post-marketing monitoring. The act will come into effect from August 2 and it sets strict rules for general-purpose AI models such as Meta's Llama, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Google's Gemini. While the code is voluntary, signing it offers companies legal clarity and reduced regulatory scrutiny. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
CNBC
5 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Meta says it won't sign Europe AI agreement, calling it an overreach that will stunt growth
Meta Platforms declined to sign the European Union's artificial intelligence code of practice because it is an overreach that will "stunt" companies, according to global affairs chief Joel Kaplan. "Europe is heading down the wrong path on AI," Kaplan wrote in a post on LinkedIn Friday. "This code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for model developers, as well as measures which go far beyond the scope of the AI Act." Last week, the European Commission published a final iteration of its code for general-purpose AI models, leaving it up to companies to decide if they want to sign. The rules, which go into effect next month, create a framework for complying with the AI Act passed by European lawmakers last year. It aims to improve transparency and safety surrounding the technology. Meta isn't the first company to stand up against Europe's new AI rulebook. ASML Holding and Airbus were among the signatories in a recent letter that called on the EU to delay the code for two years. Last week, OpenAI committed to signing the code of practice. "We share concerns raised by these businesses that this over-reach will throttle the development and deployment of frontier AI models in Europe, and stunt European companies looking to build businesses on top of them," Kaplan wrote. Kaplan replaced former global affairs chief Nick Clegg earlier this year. He previously served as vice president of U.S. policy at Facebook and was a staffer in President George W. Bush's administration.
