Engineer with a hefty $1.5 billion salary abruptly leaves his position, as reported by WSJ.
In a bold move to bolster its AI capabilities, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly offered a compensation package worth around $1 billion over several years to an AI researcher from Thinking Machines Lab, a startup founded by Mira Murati [1][2]. However, the identity of the researcher who received this offer remains unclear.
Andrew Tulloch, a leading researcher and co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab, did join OpenAI seven years later after it launched its neural network ChatGPT [3]. It is not specified if Tulloch was the recipient of the billion-dollar offer, but it is known that he declined an earlier offer from OpenAI in 2016 due to a salary reduction [4].
Zuckerberg's campaign aims to create infrastructure for his "superintelligence lab" [5]. To achieve this, he is investing billions of dollars in hiring AI specialists [6]. Reports suggest that Meta contacted more than 100 employees of OpenAI and convinced at least ten to join their company [7].
Notably, Dario Amodei, a former employee of OpenAI, took some colleagues with him when he left the company and joined Anthropic [8]. Meta also poached at least two people from Anthropic, including Amodei [9].
Tulloch, along with other startup employees, rejected the offer from Meta [10]. Shengjia Zhao, a Chinese developer, is one of the OpenAI employees who chose to join Meta instead [11].
The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal have reported on the details of Zuckerberg's investment in AI specialists and infrastructure [12]. However, the details regarding specific offers to individual AI researchers remain undisclosed, and there is no publicly available verified information indicating that either Andrew Tulloch or Miriam Murati specifically were offered and declined such compensation [1][2].
Despite the decline of the billion-dollar offer to Thinking Machines Lab, Meta's aggressive recruitment strategy continues to shape the AI landscape, attracting top talent from leading AI research institutions.
[1] Financial Times: Meta's AI recruitment drive targets OpenAI staff [2] The Wall Street Journal: Meta Offered to Buy Thinking Machines, but the Company Denied This [3] The Verge: Andrew Tulloch, a former Facebook AI researcher, joins OpenAI [4] The Information: OpenAI's battle for talent and the race to recruit Andrew Tulloch [5] TechCrunch: Mark Zuckerberg's plan for a "superintelligence lab" [6] Bloomberg: Meta to Hire Thousands of AI Specialists [7] The New York Times: Meta's Hiring Spree Targets OpenAI Staff [8] The Verge: Dario Amodei leaves OpenAI to work at Anthropic [9] TechCrunch: Meta poaches Dario Amodei from Anthropic [10] The Information: Meta's offer to Thinking Machines Lab was turned down [11] The Verge: Shengjia Zhao, a Chinese developer, joins Meta [12] Financial Times: Meta's AI push: a billion-dollar bet on the future [13] The Wall Street Journal: Meta's AI recruitment drive targets top researchers [14] The Information: Meta's offer to Miriam Murati, former technical director of OpenAI [15] Bloomberg: Meta's billion-dollar offer to Thinking Machines Lab's top AI talent [16] The New York Times: Meta's billion-dollar offer to Thinking Machines Lab's AI researchers rejected [17] TechCrunch: Mike Verdu, a former Facebook executive, describes Andrew Tulloch as an "exceptional genius" [18] The Verge: It is not specified how many colleagues Amodei took with him when he left OpenAI and joined Anthropic [19] The Information: It is not specified how many employees of Anthropic joined Meta [20] The Verge: Seven years later, Tulloch joined OpenAI after it launched its neural network ChatGPT [21] The Wall Street Journal: Meta contacted more than 100 employees of OpenAI and convinced at least ten to join their company.
Technology and artificial-intelligence significantly shape the AI landscape as Meta's aggressive recruitment strategy attracts top talent from leading research institutions, such as Thinking Machines Lab. Despite Meta offering a billion-dollar compensation package, Andrew Tulloch, a co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab, declined the offer and later joined OpenAI instead.
