OpenAI’s Mark Chen Vows to Fight Back Against Meta’s Talent Raid

Mark Chen, Chief Scientist at OpenAI, has sent an internal memo to employees, promising a fierce counterattack against Meta in the race for top AI researchers. The move comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg poached four leading OpenAI specialists for his Superintelligence Lab, sparking tensions between the two tech giants.

In a candid Slack message, Chen expressed his frustration, writing, “It feels like someone broke into our house and stole something.” He revealed that Meta is offering signing bonuses of up to $100 million, with Zuckerberg personally reaching out to prospective recruits. In response, Chen pledged to work “around the clock” with CEO Sam Altman to review salaries and devise “creative ways to recognize and reward our best talent.” However, he emphasized a balanced approach, stating, “While I’ll fight for each of you, I won’t do so at the expense of fairness to others.”

The memo also included messages from seven other research leaders, urging employees to report any Meta overtures. “If they’re pressuring you or making ridiculous exploding offers, just tell them to get lost,” they advised.

The situation is compounded by OpenAI employees’ grueling 80-hour workweeks, prompting the company to shut down for a week to allow rest. Chen warned that Meta might exploit this downtime to intensify its recruitment efforts.

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Despite the talent war, Chen acknowledged that OpenAI has been overly focused on “regular product launches and short-term comparisons with competitors” rather than its core mission of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI). “This is the main quest, and the scuffles with Meta are a side quest,” he noted.

The past week has been dominated by reports of Meta’s aggressive hiring push, with the four defectors being key developers of models like o1, o3, and o4-mini. Meta’s leadership, however, has countered claims of $100 million bonuses, stating their offers were accompanied by counteroffers from OpenAI, adding further intrigue to the ongoing rivalry.