Meta’s recruitment of key AI figures finally pays off as it is now onboarding an OpenAI researcher who is best known for helping his previous company develop its first reasoning model. It is speculated that this would help bolster Meta’s team on their quest to develop an AI reasoning model.
Previously, OpenAI’s CEO and co-founder, Sam Altman, opened up on the aggressive “poaching” tactics that Meta has enacted to nab the company’s engineers and researchers.
Meta Recruits Key OpenAI Researcher
A source revealed to TechCrunch that Meta has successfully recruited one of the key figures in OpenAI’s research team that helped deliver the O1 reasoning model. The former OpenAI researcher now joining Meta is Trapit Bansal, best known for working closely with co-founder Ilya Sutskever, whose work significantly focused on reinforcement learning.
Based on the report, an OpenAI spokesperson also confirmed Bansal’s departure from the company. Additionally, Bansal’s LinkedIn page has also updated his employment status, citing that he left OpenAI this June.
OpenAI also referred to Bansal as a “foundational contributor” in the development of the company’s o1 reasoning model that was released last December.
Read Also:
Facebook Groups Banned, Suspended Without Warning; Meta Is Working on a Fix
Meta’s AI Superintelligence Team
TechCrunch revealed that Meta is building its “AI superintelligence team” that would help improve their machine learning technologies available to the public via its platforms and services. This new team is led by Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, whose company received a whopping $15 billion investment from Meta, which awarded them a 49% stake in the startup.
Bansal is the latest to join Meta’s efforts in AI development, following fellow former OpenAI researchers Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Meta’s AI Development
Meta may be best known for its social media platforms, but the company has been making artificial intelligence the forefront of its development.
One of its most ambitious developments in this space is an AI search engine, with a previous report claiming that Mark Zuckerberg and his team are already indexing the web for over a year.
In another report, it was revealed that Meta is also taking its AI development up a notch by going on a “self-reliant” route as it plans to no longer rely on NVIDIA’s processors to power its future operations. According to the source, Meta is looking to expand to creating AI chips, which are already in its testing phase, to help the company save on costs and focus on specialized tasks.
Additionally, while the company is developing its AI to bolster its platforms and experiences with machine learning capabilities, it also plans to share its technology with the right bidders like the US government.
Read more:
Sam Altman Claims Meta Tried to Poach OpenAI Staff, Offering as Much as $100M Signing Bonuses
