Meta poaching update: Two more top OpenAI researchers join Superintelligence Labs

Meta’s hiring spree continues. According to a report by Wired, OpenAI researcher Jason Wei is joining the company's newly formed Superintelligence Labs.

Wei, who joined OpenAI in 2023, contributed to the development of the o1 and deep research models. Prior to joining OpenAI, he worked at Google from 2020 to 2023, according to his personal website. There, he focused on chain-of-thought prompting, a technique that trains AI models to solve complex problems step-by-step.

Wired also reported that Hyung Won Chung, another research scientist and Wei’s colleague at OpenAI, is set to join Meta. According to his personal website, Chung’s work at OpenAI centred on reasoning and agents. He collaborated with Wei on projects such as deep research and the o1 model, and led the training of the Codex mini model.


Meta has been on a hiring spree in recent weeks, seemingly targeting OpenAI. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been aggressively building the team, allegedly offering bonuses of up to $100 million and long-term packages totalling as much as $300 million over the next three to four years.

Also Read: Top AI talent attracted not just by paycheques: Meta CEO Mark ZuckerbergSuperintelligence Labs aims to develop AI systems that exceed human capabilities. It has bagged top talent from companies, including OpenAI, Apple, Anthropic and GitHub

While Meta’s recruitment push shows no signs of slowing, OpenAI appears to be finally striking back. Last week, the Sam Altman-led company brought on board four high-profile engineers from Meta, and Elon Musk’s Tesla and xAI.