Crash commercialisation of AI still seems to be a way off at least for the users / consumers / clients, but crash monetisation of AI’s valued resources is being played out in the Silicon Valley and its adjunct similar geographical spaces. The AI battle lines are drawn but it turning out to be a very unconventional one, Meta leading the way. When OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT on the world, everyone was surprised, more so the ones who thought themselves as the right owners of the AI throne. Three years down the line, the multidimensional battle still rages on, as there is nobody who can even imagine to be the also rans in the AI space.
All that AI has achieved and hopefully is bound to achieve given by the last three years track record, is being overshadowed by poaching chaos which has hit the top echelons of the AI industry. The unilinear approach to research and development and productization is what the world has been familiar with so far. Can astronomical salaries create teams? Is it in consonance with the mission based culture? Is leaving mid-way justifiable to the current employer, team and to the product itself, which is in the making? What impact or value does culture have for a company? And final question, can bringing in supposedly top class talent, help manufacture another ChatGPT, for the lack of any other analogy.
Meta is on a roll, it has turned out to be the biggest poacher of all times. Meta was pushed to the AI periphery when one could visibly see its desperation to dominate AI. It could not grow talent internally, with no qualms about buying it instead, Mark Zuckerberg went on a poaching spree of staff from the competitor companies. The companies under poaching attack were OpenAI, Google, Anthropic etc with astronomical signing bonuses of $100 million, for its “Superintelligence” AI lab to outshine. At least 7 staffers from OpenAI have bit the bullet, but Amodei insists that most of the employees haven’t taken the bait – and he is not showing money to the staff to keep them.
Culture, mission and innovation have been very deeply tied to each other, an umbilical cord relationship. And this be broken and the best AI model be delivered. Anthropic can proudly declare that they have the best retention rates amongst their peers. Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive poaching strategy has ruffled many feathers in the AI world. Amodei sums it all; “I think that what they are doing is trying to buy something that cannot be bought, and that is alignment with the mission. I think there are selection effects here,” he said. “Are they getting the people who are the most enthusiastic, who are most mission aligned, who are most excited.”
WILL POACHING DELIVER META SUPERINTELLIGENCE LABS IT’S DREAM? A DOUBTFUL PROPOSITION INDEED!