OpenAI announced today that it has hired three senior computer vision and machine learning engineers from rival Google DeepMind, all these new ones will work in the open OpenAI Office in Zurich, Switzerland. OpenAI executives told employees in an internal memo on Tuesday that Lucas Baer, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai will join the company to work on multimodal AI. artificial intelligence Models capable of working across a variety of mediums, from images to audio.
OpenAI has long been at the forefront of multimodal AI and released the first version of its text-to-image platform Dall-e in 2021. However, its flagship chatbot ChatGPT was initially only able to interact with text input. The company later added sound And image Features such as multimodal functionality became an important part of its product line and AI research. (latest version of Dall-ee Available directly within ChatGPT.) OpenAI has also developed a highly anticipated generative AI video product called SoraHowever it has not been made widely available yet.
According to Baer, the three newly appointed researchers are already working closely together personal websiteWhile working at DeepMind, Baer appears to have kept a close eye on the research being published by OpenAI and the company's public controversies, about which he frequently posted to his more than 70,000 followers on Twitter. Bayer was briefly ousted from OpenAI by its board of directors last year when CEO Sam Altman Posted The “most sensible” explanation for the firing that he had read so far was that Altman had been involved in several other startups at the same time.
As they race to develop the most advanced AI models, OpenAI and its rivals are intense competition To recruit a limited group of top researchers from around the world, they are often offered annual compensation packages close to seven points or more. It is not unusual for the most sought-after talent to move around between companies.
tim brooksFor example, someone who previously co-led the research direction of OpenAI's unreleased video generator recently moved to work at DeepMind. But the high-profile poaching scandal extends far beyond DeepMind and OpenAI. Microsoft hired its AI lead, Mustafa SulemanAway from Inflection AI in March – along with most of the startup's employees. and google Allegedly Paid $2.7 billion to bring back Character.AI founder Noam Shazir.
Over the past few months, several key people at OpenAI have left the company, either to join direct competitors like DeepMind and Anthropic or to launch their own ventures. Ilya SutskeverAn OpenAI co-founder and its former chief scientist left to launch safe superintendenceA startup focused on AI security and existential risks. Mira MuratiThe former chief technology officer of OpenAI, announced she was leaving the company in September and is reportedly raise money For a new AI venture.
In October, OpenAI said it was working on expanding globally. Additionally the company is planning to open new offices in Zurich new posts It already has outposts in New York City, Seattle, Brussels, Paris and Singapore, and in London, Tokyo and other cities, in addition to its San Francisco headquarters.
According to LinkedIn, Zhai, Baer and Kolesnikov all live in Zurich, which has become a relatively major tech hub in Europe. The city is home to ETH Zurich, a public research university with a globally renowned computer science department. Apple has also reportedly lured several AI experts from Google to work in “a secret European laboratory in Zurich.” financial Times Reported earlier this year.