#ai-talent-war

#ai-talent-war

OpenAI executives are discussing a potential relocation out of California as increasing political resistance threatens the company's efforts to convert from nonprofit to for-profit status, according to The WSJ, though the company says it has no plans to leave. California's attorney general is investigating whether OpenAI's restructuring violates state charitable trust law, while a coalition of nonprofits, labor groups, philanthropies, and even rival Meta are pushing back against the conversion.

It's because of the talent war that was started by Mark Zuckerberg. I used to work at Meta, and I speak with my former colleagues often about this. When I heard about their compensation packages, I was shocked - it's really in the tens of millions range. But it shows that in this age, AI researchers who make the best models and stand at the frontier of technology are really worth this amount of money.

Mark Zuckerberg has been offering packages exceeding $100 million to attract AI talent from competitors, but many experts reject these offers, citing mission loyalty.

"People here are so mission-oriented," Benjamin Mann said. "They get these offers and then they say, 'Well, of course I'm not going to leave because my best case scenario at Meta is that we make money, and my best case at Anthropic is we affect the future of humanity.'"