Rs 2,400 Crore For Two AI Engineers: What Meta's Hiring Spree Means
Who Are These AI Stars?
Trapit Bansal
A graduate of IIT Kanpur, Trapit Bansal joined OpenAI in 2022 and made significant contributions to its reinforcement learning efforts and early AI reasoning models. TechCrunch described him as "a highly influential OpenAI researcher." There, he played a crucial role in developing OpenAI's "O-series" reasoning models, particularly the foundational "O1" model, working closely with co-founder Ilya Sutskever. Earlier this month, he confirmed on X (formerly Twitter): "Thrilled to be joining Meta! Superintelligence is now in sight".
Thrilled to be joining @Meta! Superintelligence is now in sight 🚀
— Trapit Bansal (@TrapitBansal) June 30, 2025
Ruoming Pang
Previously, the head of Apple's Foundation Models team, Ruoming Pang, was responsible for leading the development of Apple's advanced AI systems. He departed Apple in early July to join Meta's newly launched Superintelligence Labs, marking a major blow to Apple's AI division.
Why Meta's Big Bet?
1. Elite talent war: Meta is aggressively combating fierce competition for top-tier AI researchers, offering record-breaking compensation that far exceeds even the salaries of some global CEOs.
2. Unified AI strategy: The Superintelligence Labs aim to consolidate Meta's fragmented AI teams under a centralised vision for developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) and eventually surpassing it.
3. Building future infrastructure: These hires align with Meta's rollout of massive AI compute assets, including its "Prometheus" supercluster expected online by 2026 and temporary mega-data-centres, signalling a long-term investment in AI leadership.
What Lies Ahead
Key architects: Bansal and Pang, along with Alexandr Wang, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross and other hires (e.g., from OpenAI, DeepMind and Anthropic), will spearhead core AI research.
Unified Direction: Superintelligence Labs aims to integrate Meta's scattered AI efforts under a cohesive long-term AGI roadmap.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Deccan Herald
15 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
Meta apologises for inaccurate Kannada translation
Social media major Meta recently apologised for inaccurate Kannada translation and claimed to have fixed the issue, after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah raised concerns over faulty auto-translation of Kannada content on its platforms. Raising concerns over the faulty auto-translation of Kannada content on Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, Siddaramaiah said that it was leading to the distortion of facts and misleading users. "We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation. We apologize that this happened," a Meta spokesperson said. Siddaramaiah said social media platforms must act responsibly, especially when dealing with official communication, and cautioned citizens to be aware that translations displayed on these platforms are often inaccurate. "Faulty auto-translation of Kannada content on Meta platforms is distorting facts and misleading users. This is especially dangerous when it comes to official communication. My media advisor has formally written to Meta urging immediate correction," Siddaramaiah posted on 'X'. "Social media platforms must act responsibly. I caution citizens to be aware that translations shown are often inaccurate. Such negligence by tech giants can harm public understanding and trust," he added. In an email sent to Meta on July 16, the chief minister's media advisor, K V Prabhakar, raised serious concerns on behalf of the CM regarding the automatic translation of Kannada content on Facebook and Instagram. The Karnataka government has asked Meta to temporarily suspend the auto-translation feature for Kannada content until translation accuracy is reliably improved. Machine translations are shown to users in various instances on Facebook and Instagram, including public biographical info and specific pieces of content. In the case of Kannada auto-translation, Meta's AI machine translation model provided a machine translation error which caused inaccurate Kannada translations in Facebook-- which the company claims to have been fixed now.
The Hindu
15 minutes ago
- The Hindu
CoinDCX hit by $44.2 mn security breach; founders say customer funds unaffected, safe
Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX has suffered a security breach, resulting in theft of $44.2 million, or ₹378 crore, even as the founders took to X to reassure that customer funds remained unaffected and safe, with the compromise limited to an internal operational account. The total exposure is being absorbed entirely by CoinDCX, using the company's treasury reserves, the company said in a First Incident Report released on Sunday. According to the report, on July 19, at 4 a.m., CoinDCX security systems detected an incident involving unauthorised access to one of its accounts on the partner exchange, leading to a financial exposure of about $44 million. The incident once again puts the spotlight on mounting security threats in the highly volatile world of cryptocurrencies. Last year, crypto exchange WazirX faced a hack in India, leading to the loss of more than $230 million, and marking one of the biggest such heists in India. The theft had prompted a thorough examination of safety measures and eroded sentiments. CoinDCX co-founders Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal took to the social media platform X to address the situation, confirming that the attack was the result of a sophisticated server breach, targeting an internal wallet, not the ones holding customer assets. The incident was first flagged by blockchain investigator ZachXBT, following which the exchange made the disclosure public. "Today, one of our internal operational accounts -- used only for liquidity provisioning on a partner exchange -- was compromised due to a sophisticated server breach. I confirm that the CoinDCX wallets used to store customer assets are not impacted and are completely safe. This won't cause any loss to our customers. CoinDCX will be bearing the full amount," Mr. Gupta said. "The total amount lost was USD 44Mn out of our treasury assets. Coindcx Treasury will be bearing these losses," Mr. Khandelwal wrote. Following this, users rushed to check their balances, leading to a spike in withdrawal requests. The sudden surge in activity led to CoinDCX's portfolio APIs, which display user balances and transaction histories, becoming jammed and unresponsive. For several hours, many were unable to even see their holdings on the app, adding fuel to rumours and anxiety online. The co-founders later updated that Portfolio APIs have been restored. Affected infrastructure has been completely isolated, and CoinDCX operations continue to run normally, the company said. CERT-In, or the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, has been informed about the incident. Detailed forensics with two globally reputed security agencies is being carried out, and reports will be shared for public benefit, it added. "CoinDCX services remain fully operational. Trading activity, INR deposits and INR withdrawals continue. INR withdrawals below Rs 5 lakhs will reflect in your account within 5 hours, while withdrawals above Rs 5 lakhs will be processed within 72 hours. The incident was isolated and has no impact on your portfolio access or operations," the company stated. Social media is flooded with mixed reactions. While some praised CoinDCX for absorbing the losses and protecting user funds, others criticised the delay in public disclosure and raised concerns over the broader security of crypto platforms in India. "Coindcx silent for 17 hours? That's more suspense than a thriller! In crypto, transparency isn't optional; it's key. Stay open to keep trust alive!" a user wrote. "Good to see CoinDCX acting responsibly, assuring user funds are safe, and not passing losses onto customers. Sets a positive precedent for Indian crypto exchanges," another said.
Time of India
44 minutes ago
- Time of India
Chanda Kochhar got Rs 64 crore bribe to OK Videocon loan: Tribunal
Chanda Kochhar NEW DELHI: Holding Chanda Kochhar , former CEO of ICICI Bank , guilty of receiving bribes of Rs 64 crore through her husband from Videocon group, an appellate tribunal here in an order dated July 3 observed that the money was paid as quid-pro-quo for sanctioning a loan of Rs 300 crore to the Videocon group. 'The history given by the appellants (ED) has been narrated and supported by the evidence in the light of the reference of the statements under Section 50 of the PMLA Act which are admissible and can be relied upon. The allegation made by the appellants stands because on paper ownership of NRPL is shown to be of V N Dhoot (CMD of Videocon group) but according to him also, the entire control of the company was of Deepak Kochhar (Chanda Kochhar's husband). Thus, the allegations were made for quid-pro-quo to Chanda Kochhar for sanction of loan to Videocon group of industries,' the tribunal said in its order. The appellate tribunal slammed the adjudicating authority that had earlier in Nov 2020 given relief to the accused in releasing the attached assets worth Rs 78 crore. 'The adjudicating authority has ignored the material facts while drawing the conclusions which are coming out on the face of the record and, therefore, we cannot endorse the finding of the adjudicating authority going against the record and ignoring the relevant facts. Thus, we find substance in the allegation of the appellants for quid-pro-quo to Chanda Kochhar for sanction of loan of Rs 300 crore to Videocon group and thereupon, a sum of Rs 64 crore was transferred to NRPL, a company managed by Deepak Kochhar and, in fact, he was the managing director of the said company. The factual issues narrated above clarifies that the appellants have taken up the matter to justify the attachment of the property,' the tribunal said, justifying the ED's attachments. The tribunal noted that the sanction of a loan of Rs 300 crore by ICICI Bank to the Videocon group where Chanda Kochhar remained part of the committee was against the rules and policy of the bank. 'The issue remains about the transfer of Rs 64 crore by Videocon group through its entity SEPL to NRPL day after the disbursement of loan by ICICI Bank,' it said while validating the evidence produced by the ED. The appellate tribunal also held Kochhar guilty of not disclosing her conflict of interest while sanctioning the loan.
