ChatGPT co-creator Shengjia Zhao’s ‘threat’ that may have ‘forced’ Meta to appoint him as chief AI scientist
Shengjia Zhao, one of the co-creators of OpenAI’s popular chatbot ChatGPT, was recently named Meta‘s new “chief AI scientist“. However, the social media giant may have offered him the role shortly after he allegedly threatened to quit and return to his former employer, OpenAI, a report claims. A report by the Financial Times cited four sources to claim that Zhao had even signed employment papers to return to OpenAI, after which he was offered the role. This move would have been a blow to CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s effort to build “personal superintelligence.”
What Meta said about making Shengjia Zhao its chief AI scientist
In a statement to FT, a Meta spokesperson said that Zhao had served as the scientific lead of Meta’s superintelligence initiative since its beginning, and the company chose to formalise his chief scientist title only after the whole team was established.“Some attrition is normal for any organisation of this size. Most of these employees had been with the company for years, and we wish them the best,” the spokesperson added.For the past few months, Zuckerberg has been driving the most significant leadership reshuffle in Meta’s 20-year history, moving away from longtime loyalists like Chris Cox and leaning on a newer wave of executives, including Meta’s chief AI lead Zhao, ex-Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, and former GitHub head Nat Friedman, as the company intensifies its push in AI.Amid the ongoing changes, multiple newly hired AI staff have already chosen to leave after short stints, according to people familiar with the matter.Among them is Ethan Knight, a machine-learning scientist who joined only weeks ago. At the same time, Avi Verma, a former OpenAI researcher, completed Meta’s onboarding process but never started his role, a person said. Earlier this week, research scientist Rishabh Agarwal, who joined in April, shared on X that he was departing. Although he described Zuckerberg and Wang’s vision as “incredibly compelling,” he noted that he “felt the pull to take on a different kind of risk,” without elaborating.In addition, longtime employees Chaya Nayak and Loredana Crisan, who spent nine and ten years at Meta, respectively, were among more than half a dozen experienced staff who have recently announced their exits. “We appreciate that there’s outsized interest in seemingly every minute detail of our AI efforts, no matter how inconsequential or mundane, but we’re just focused on doing the work to deliver personal superintelligence,” Meta said earlier.
