Meta freezes AI hiring amid team reshuffle

Meta has reportedly stopped hiring in its AI division after spending months wooing over 50 AI engineers and researchers. However, a spokesperson for the tech firm said this is nothing more than just the Wall Street Journal sensationalizing one of the company’s mundane processes, adding that the tech firm temporarily pauses hiring sometimes. 

The hiring pause went into effect last week, coinciding with the broader restructuring of the AI team. It also prohibited current employees from switching teams within the division. However, the duration of these temporary hiring breaks has not yet been communicated. Some external hires might be exempted from the block, although this will require permission from Meta’s Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang.

Meanwhile, the tech firm’s spokesperson characterized the freeze as basic organizational planning to create a solid structure for the company’s superintelligence efforts. The recent restructuring divided the company’s AI division into four main teams, all under the Meta Superintelligence Labs umbrella. The first one, called TBD Lab, which comprises many of the new hires, will work on superintelligence. The second team will work on AI products, while the third will work on infrastructure. The fourth team, Fundamental AI Research, will be dedicated to long-term projects needing deeper exploration. 

Meta replaces the Llama team

The tech company disclosed that the new AI hires replaced the previous AGI Foundation team, which developed the company’s latest Llama large language models. However, the team drew criticism from the company’s executives this spring, following the less-than-expected underperformance of the latest Llama models. Its dissolution was part of the company’s reorganization. Three members of the previous team left the company on August 15.

Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, became personally involved in recruiting AI engineers and researchers after the dismal release of the latest Llama models in April. The tech boss approached employees of other AI labs through email and WhatsApp messages with compensation offers reaching hundreds of millions of dollars. Cryptopolitan previously reported that Zuckerberg created a private WhatsApp group chat labeled “Recruiting Party,” where top bosses traded candidate ideas. The Meta CEO offered the Thinking Machine Lab’s co-founder, Andrew Tulloch, a deal worth over $1.5 billion, which Tulloch declined. 

Zuckerberg then decided to hire Wang, Scale AI’s co-founder, to spearhead the hiring process. He secured Wang by acquiring a $14 billion stake in Scale AI. The Meta boss also brought in the co-founder of Safe Superintelligence, Daniel Gross, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. He secured the duo by buying a stake in their NFDG venture firm. The tech company had hired over 20 OpenAI engineers and researchers, 13 from Google, three from Apple, three from xAI, and two from Anthropic as of mid-August.

Wang oversees the AI team reshuffling

The new Chief AI Officer said he’s overseeing the reorganization as his company doubled down on its AI team reshuffle. The process, which involved thousands of product managers, engineers, and scientists, resulted in the expected departure of a few executives. At least one team was also shut down entirely. 

Wang acknowledged through a recent email to employees that the reorganization could be disruptive. However, he pointed out that the new structure would allow the AI team to reach superintelligence faster over the long term. Meanwhile, investors seemed to have mixed feelings as the company’s stock dropped 2% following news of the reshuffle.

“We think the team at Meta, after Zuckerberg’s hiring spree, will need a period of acclimation before it finds the velocity to develop more competitive solutions,” said Wang. However, he noted that his company’s mission, by contrast, had remained the same as it was before the new hires. Wang emphasized that the tech firm looked to improve products that promoted more user engagement on its social media platforms, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. According to the company’s Q2 financial report, advertising on those platforms reached $46.6 billion. 

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