Sam Altman slams Meta’s AI talent poaching rave: “Missionaries Will Defeat Mercenaries”
Sam, CEO of Openai Altman hits Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent AI talent poaching frenzy. In a comprehensive response sent to OpenAI researchers on Monday night and received Wired, Altman made his own advice on why staying in Openai is the only answer to people looking to build artificial general intelligence, which implies that the company is evaluating compensation across the research organization.
He also dismissed Meta’s recruitment efforts and said what the company is doing could lead to deep cultural issues.
“We’ve gone from some nerds in the corner to the most interesting people in the tech industry (at least),” he wrote on Slack. “Al Twitter is toxic; Meta’s behavior is a bit annoying; I think things will get even more crazy in the future. After I was fired and back, I said that’s not the craziest thing in open history; of course not.”
The news follows Zuckerberg’s major announcement. On Monday, the Chief Executive of the Führer sent a memo to staff about the company’s new superintelligence team, which will be hosted by Alexandr Wang, who previously led Github. The new hires list also includes many people from Openai, including Shengjia Zhao, Shuchao Bi, Jiahui Yu and Hongyu Ren. Openai’s chief research officer Mark Chen told employees it felt like “someone broke our home and stole things.”
Altmann made a different voice about leaving in his notes on Monday.
He wrote: “Meta will certainly get some great people, but overall it’s hard to exaggerate that they didn’t get their top people and had to fall far down on their list; they’ve been trying to recruit people for a long time, and I’ve lost track of how many people here are trying to be their chief scientists,” he wrote. “I am proud of the entire industry’s mission-oriented approach; of course, there will always be some mercenaries.”
He added that “the missionaries will defeat the mercenaries”, noting that Openai is evaluating the compensation for the entire research organization. “I believe there is much more room for opening up stocks than dollar stocks,” he wrote. “But I think that after a huge success, huge upside is important; I think what Meta does will lead to very profound cultural issues. We will have more sharing soon, but it’s very important to me, we are very important, not just the people who happen to the elements.”
Altman then introduced players to people who stayed in Openai. “I’ve never been more confident in our research roadmap,” he wrote. “We’ve made an unprecedented bet on calculations, but I love what we’re doing, and I’m confident that we’ll make the most of it. Most importantly, I think we have the most special team and culture in the world. We have work to do, and we can definitely improve our culture; we’ve grown through crazy super growth. But, we don’t have anyone, I think we can solve problems well, and I can solve problems well, and I can solve problems well.
“Perhaps more important than that, we actually care about building AGI in a good way,” he added. “Other companies care more about this is an important goal for some other tasks. But it’s our top priority and always is. After Meta turns to the next taste of the next week or defends their social moat, we’ll be here every year, day in and day out to figure out how we do our other efforts, which will make a lot of other efforts go up and fall.”
Many senior employees working at Meta then tell their stories in Slack about why Openai’s culture is superior. “[T]Hey, keep spinning their highest focus. “Another one said, “Yes, we’re weird and weird, but that’s what makes this place a magical cradle of innovation.” We include many. ”
