OpenAI researcher Jason Wei is becoming a member of Meta’s new superintelligence lab, in accordance with a number of sources aware of the matter.
Wei labored on OpenAI’s o3 and deep analysis fashions, in accordance with his private web site. He joined OpenAI in 2023 after a stint at Google, the place he labored on chain-of-thought analysis, which entails coaching an AI mannequin to course of complicated queries step-by-step. At OpenAI, Wei grew to become a self-described “diehard” for reinforcement studying, a technique of coaching or refining an AI mannequin with optimistic or detrimental suggestions. It’s change into a promising space of AI analysis—one which a number of of the researchers Meta has employed for its superintelligence crew focus on.
One supply tells WIRED that one other OpenAI researcher, Hyung Gained Chung, may even be becoming a member of Meta. A number of sources verify that each Wei and Chung’s inside OpenAI Slack profiles are presently deactivated. OpenAI, Meta, Wei, and Chung didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark from WIRED.
Chung labored on a number of the similar tasks at OpenAI as Wei, together with deep analysis and OpenAI’s o1 mannequin, in accordance with Chung’s private web site. His analysis is primarily centered on reasoning and brokers, the web site says. Chung overlapped with Wei at Google as effectively, and joined OpenAI concurrently Wei, per their LinkedIn profiles.
A number of sources inform WIRED that Wei and Chung have a detailed working relationship. Meta has beforehand poached teams of researchers which have expertise working collectively for its new superintelligence lab, together with a trio from OpenAI’s Switzerland workplace that joined the ChatGPT maker from Google.
Meta has been happening a poaching spree over the previous month, providing as much as $300 million over 4 years to high AI expertise. WIRED reported late final month that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg despatched an inside memo to workers that laid out a contemporary plan for the corporate’s AI efforts. It included a listing of recent staffers for the superintelligence crew, most of whom had been recruited from OpenAI.
The hiring frenzy reveals no indicators of slowing down, and OpenAI has been combating again. Simply final week, WIRED reported that OpenAI had recruited 4 high-ranking engineers from Tesla, xAI, and Meta.
On Tuesday, Wei shared a submit on social media reflecting on what he referred to as “an necessary lesson” that reinforcement studying taught him “about the right way to dwell my very own life.”
In life, (and when constructing AI fashions), imitation is sweet and you must do it at first, Wei wrote. However “beating the trainer requires strolling your personal path and taking dangers and rewards from the surroundings.”
