OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, has hired several former employees of tech giants Google and Meta, according to a Business Insider report. The report cited data from LeadGenius and Punks & Pinstripes which shows that there are currently 59 ex-Google employees and 34 ex-Meta employees on OpenAI’s payroll.
OpenAI blazed onto the tech scene with its experimental chatbot ChatGPT. Microsoft-backed ChatGPT has taken the world by storm with its ability to generate finely crafted texts such as essays or poems in just seconds using technology known as large language models (or LLM).
Greg Larkin, CEO of Punks & Pinstripes, said that data about the number of ex Google and Meta staff currently employed by OpenAI should serve as a ‘wakeup call” for big tech.
"If nothing else, OpenAI is a sign that Big Tech, especially Google, isn't optimizing its investments in its employees," Larkin said. "A lot of AI talent has been working on secondary products in innovation labs like Alphabet X. For many this means that they rarely see their work have a meaningful impact on the company's core products or earnings."
The Insider report also said that leadership at OpenAI is comprised mostly of former Big Tech workers, including ex-employees of Google, Meta and Apple.
Meta and Google both recently announced mass layoffs, each citing the economic downturn. Microsoft also has plans to trim its workforce.
Meanwhile on the AI front, Microsoft has deepened its partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and earlier this month announced the technology would be integrated into its Bing search engine as well as the Edge browser.
Google, seeing a sudden threat to the dominance of its search engine, quickly announced it would release its own language AI, known as Bard, shortly.
But reports of disturbing exchanges with Microsoft's Bing chatbot -- including it issuing threats and speaking of desires to steal nuclear code or lure one user from his wife -- went viral, raising alarm bells that the technology was not ready.
(With inputs from AFP)
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