Meta's Zuckerberg is busy! Gave a salary of over a hundred million dollars, and three AI geniuses left in two months.

Meta has invested heavily in establishing the Superintelligence Labs, yet within two months has lost multiple core researchers, highlighting the intense competition for AI talent and management challenges. (Background: Financial Report) Meta's revenue exceeded expectations, increasing investments in AI, causing its stock to surge 12%, while Microsoft's Azure cloud profits reached new highs, with a market capitalization of 4 trillion dollars. (Background Supplement: How significantly does the Big and Beautiful Act impact Amazon, Meta, and Google?) The Meta Superintelligence Labs, built with billions of dollars, is originally viewed as the ultimate weapon for sprinting towards Artificial General Intelligence AGI, but just two months after its opening, multiple core researchers have left in succession, disrupting CEO Zuckerberg's plans. Three key members lost in two months According to a report by WIRED, the MSL, announced in the first quarter of 2025, lost at least three researchers in its second month: Avi Verma and Ethan Knight returned to OpenAI, while Rishabh Agarwal, who had served at Google Brain and DeepMind, also chose to leave. Rishabh Agarwal explained his motivation on the X platform: "The resources and Computing Power of MSL are indeed impressive, but I want to challenge different risks." External interpretation suggests that his geographical distance from the main team located in Menlo Park, California, was the last straw. Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold responded that it is "normal" for candidates to change their minds during the recruitment process. However, even Meta's Director of Product Management for Generative AI, Chaya Nayak, has switched to OpenAI, indicating that the issue has gone beyond individual retention, exposing the headwinds MSL faced at its inception regarding personnel composition. High salaries do not guarantee long-term commitment To attract top talent, Zuckerberg has reportedly offered total packages of up to 150 million dollars. However, while salaries in the AI field continue to break records, corporate culture and organizational stability become key factors for talent retention. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that Meta's AI department has undergone multiple reorganizations in recent years, and has recently been further divided into four small teams, causing employees to feel a lack of direction. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has criticized Meta's "headhunting behavior" as extremely aggressive. In fact, MSL's chief scientist candidate Shengjia Zhao also attempted to return to OpenAI before ultimately staying at Meta. Although the super high salary is a "threshold" for recruiting AI geniuses, it does not ensure that researchers are willing to stand by for the long term. The departures of Agarwal and others serve as a reminder to companies: a sense of mission, research freedom, and a flat, high-trust management atmosphere are often the conditions that top talent truly cares about. Hellish interactions in a dream team MSL has gathered world-class AI researchers and engineers, but also faces the classic dilemma of "managing smart people." The Los Angeles Times describes that when a group of top minds collaborates simultaneously, self-inflation, theoretical competition among factions, and the pull of R&D priorities can become chaotic. In addition, in early August, news emerged that Meta had suspended AI department hiring, signaling a shift from "expansion sprint" to "internal integration." In the short term, this can reduce personnel expenses; in the long term, if there is a lack of clear decision-making mechanisms, the risk of talent loss still exists. On the other hand, MSL's newly appointed AI chief Alexandr Wang has reached a collaboration with Midjourney, emphasizing the acceleration of video generation technology. This indicates that Meta is still striving to fill its technical weaknesses through external alliances, but whether this strategy can quickly integrate its own products remains to be seen. Related reports AI really starts to take human jobs" Global giants accelerate layoffs, American college graduates face immediate unemployment.. Alibaba Cloud launches Web3 smart contract AI assistant for Sui Network developers. This article, titled "Zuckerberg's futile efforts! Offering over 100 million dollars in salary, three AI geniuses left in two months," was first published in BlockTempo, one of the most influential blockchain news media.