Meta Halts AI Hiring Amid Investor Concerns Over Costs

Meta unexpectedly halted hiring in its artificial intelligence branch last week as part of a larger reorganization of its 'Superintelligence Lab,' according to sources familiar with the situation who spoke to The Wall Street Journal. Both internal team transfers and external hires are prohibited under the freeze, with Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang's consent needed for exceptions. This dramatic action follows Meta's unprecedented AI talent battle, hiring more than 50 researchers and engineers from rivals such as Apple, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg actively engaged in the crucial hiring process by personally contacting targets via WhatsApp and email. He acquired a $14 billion interest in Scale AI to hire co-founder Alexandr Wang as its chief AI officer. Additionally, the company hired Daniel Gross, a co-founder of Safe Superintelligence, and Nat Friedman, the former CEO of GitHub.

Significant departures from Meta's AI ranks have resulted from the restructure, undermining the company's enormous investment through a brain drain. The New York Times reports that key figures, such as research scientist Angela Fan, who contributed to the development of Meta's Llama AI model, recently departed for OpenAI.

The unsatisfactory performance of Meta's most recent AI models, launched in April, has caused chaos. This setback prompted Zuckerberg to become personally involved in recruiting new talent and dissolving the AGI Foundations team that had overseen the failed project.