Meta recruits 3 OpenAI researchers amid Sam Altman's poaching claims

Meta has hired Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai from OpenAI to work on its superintelligence initiatives

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recruited three researchers from OpenAI to join his 'superintelligence' team, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. The news comes days after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman accused the Facebook parent company of attempting to lure away its employees.

 

An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the departure of the three researchers but declined to provide further details. According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta has hired Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, all of whom were based at OpenAI’s Zurich office.

 

What is 'Superintelligence'?

 

Superintelligence refers to a form of artificial intelligence that can outperform humans in all tasks. Currently, AI systems have not reached this level and remain below artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is defined as the ability to match human performance across a wide range of tasks.

 

Zuckerberg leads aggressive recruitment drive

 

Zuckerberg has reportedly taken a personal role in recruiting top AI talent globally. The Wall Street Journal reported that he has contacted leading researchers, developers, and entrepreneurs directly—via emails and WhatsApp messages.

 

Last week, Sam Altman claimed that Meta had offered some of his employees $100 million in bonuses as part of their recruitment strategy. This has intensified the ongoing competition for top AI talent. In response, OpenAI has reportedly issued significant counteroffers to retain its key personnel.

 

Meta's AI setbacks

 

Once regarded as a frontrunner in open-source AI development, Meta has faced internal challenges, including staff resignations and delays in launching new models designed to compete with offerings from Google, OpenAI, and China’s DeepSeek. “I've heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor,” Altman remarked.

 

Meta buys stakes in Scale AI

 

In a further move to bolster its AI ambitions, Meta recently brought on board 28-year-old Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to work on its superintelligence initiatives. The company also acquired a 49 per cent stake in Scale AI for $14.3 billion.

 

Scale AI is a data labelling firm that processes and categorises information used to train large AI models. Reports suggest that Meta is aiming to reposition itself by assembling a dedicated team of experts to pursue artificial general intelligence.

 

What is Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)?

 

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a theoretical form of AI that would possess cognitive abilities on par with those of humans. Although not yet realised, AGI would potentially be capable of reasoning, learning, perception, problem-solving, and understanding language—comparable to human intelligence.

 

An AI system would be considered to have reached AGI if its performance became indistinguishable from that of a human, a benchmark defined by the Turing test, proposed by computer scientist Alan Turing. The test requires that a human being should be unable to distinguish a machine from another human being by using the replies to questions put to both.  

 

However, many experts believe that AGI remains several decades away from becoming a reality.