Altman discusses Meta's recruitment tactics and the competition in the AI field
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, revealed that Meta's attempts to poach his best staff with generous signing bonuses were not successful. Altman shared insights on the competition between OpenAI and Meta on his brother's podcast "Uncapped with Jack Altman," in an episode that aired on Tuesday.
"I've heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor, and I think it is rational for them to keep trying. Their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they've hoped," Altman said of Meta's $15 billion investment in data-labeling firm Scale AI.
However, Altman expressed disbelief when Meta tried to recruit OpenAI's employees by offering them $100 million signing bonuses if they switched companies. "I'm really happy that at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that," Altman said.
Altman also highlighted the importance of culture over exorbitant pay packages, warning that focusing solely on compensation could harm a company's culture in the long run. "The strategy of a ton of upfront guaranteed comp and that being the reason you tell someone to join, like really the degree to which they're focusing on that and not the work and not the mission, I don't think that's going to set up a great culture," Altman said.
The hunt for AI talent has intensified as companies vie for dominance in the field. Aravind Srinivas, the founder and CEO of AI search startup Perplexity, emphasized the need for enticing incentives and immediate access to computing resources to attract AI talent.
Naveen Rao, the vice president of AI at Databricks, likened finding skilled AI researchers to finding rare talent like LeBron James, highlighting the scarcity of individuals capable of building cutting-edge AI models.
Representatives for OpenAI and Meta did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
