Meta Poaches OpenAI Scientist to Help Lead AI Lab

Mark Zuckerberg has poached a high-ranking OpenAI researcher to be the research principal of Meta Superintelligence Labs. Yang Song, who previously led the strategic explorations team at OpenAI, is now reporting to Shengjia Zhao, another OpenAI alum who has overseen the buzzy AI effort since July, according to multiple sources. He started earlier this month.

The move comes after Zuckerberg went on a hiring blitz earlier this summer, bringing in at least 11 top researchers from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

Song had been at OpenAI since 2022. His research there focused on improving models’ ability to process large, complex datasets across different modalities. While still a graduate student at Stanford University, he developed a breakthrough technique that helped inform the development of OpenAI’s Dall-E 2 image-generation model. Both he and Zhao attended Tsinghua University in Beijing as undergraduates and worked under the same adviser, Stefano Ermon, while pursuing PhDs at Stanford.

In a staff-wide memo sent this summer, Zuckerberg touted Zhao’s impressive résumé as the cocreator of ChatGPT, GPT-4, all mini models, 4.1, and o3 at OpenAI—but he did not specify Zhao’s new role at Meta. In July, Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post that while Zhao had “cofounded the lab” and “been our lead scientist from day one,” Meta had decided to “formalize his leadership role” as the lab’s chief scientist. The move came after Zhao threatened to return to OpenAI, even going as far as to sign employment documents, WIRED previously reported.

A small number of researchers have left Meta Superintelligence Labs since the initiative was first announced in June. Two staffers have returned to OpenAI, WIRED previously reported. One of these researchers went through onboarding but never showed up for their first day of work at Meta.

Another AI researcher, Aurko Roy, also left Meta in July, WIRED has learned. He’d worked at the tech giant for just five months, according to his personal website, which also says he now works on Microsoft AI. Roy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED. Yang Song, OpenAI, and Meta also did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED.

Song joins an already crowded field of big-name AI talent within Meta’s increasingly complicated AI division. When Zhao was hired in July, some speculated that he had replaced Yann LeCun, Meta’s long-standing chief AI scientist. In a LinkedIn post, LeCun clarified that he remained chief AI scientist for Facebook AI Research, the company’s longstanding foundational AI research lab.