Latest news with #LucasBeyer
Time of India
02-07-2025
- Science
- Time of India
How to Become an AI Genius: Lessons students can learn from Meta's $100 million hires
If you want to become an AI genius – the kind that Mark Zuckerberg offers $50–$100 million to join his quest for artificial general intelligence (AGI) – here's the blueprint, decoded from Meta's elite hires. 1. Build a rock-solid maths foundation Almost every AI superstar Meta poached – from Lucas Beyer to Trapit Bansal – started with hardcore mathematics or computer science degrees. Linear algebra, calculus, probability, and optimisation aren't optional. They are your bread and butter. Why? Because AI models are just giant stacks of matrix multiplications optimised over billions of parameters. If you can't handle eigenvectors or gradient descent, you'll be stuck fine-tuning open-source models instead of inventing the next GPT-5. 2. Specialise in deep learning Next comes deep learning mastery. Study neural networks, convolutional networks for vision, transformers for language, and recurrent models for sequence data. The Vision Transformer (ViT) co-created by Lucas Beyer and Alexander Kolesnikov redefined computer vision precisely because they understood both transformer architectures and vision systems deeply. Recommended learning path: Undergraduate/early coursework : Machine learning, statistics, data structures, algorithms. Graduate-level depth : Neural network architectures, representation learning, reinforcement learning. 3. Research, research, research The real differentiator isn't coding ability alone. It's original research. Look at Meta's dream team: Jack Rae did a PhD in neural memory and reasoning. Xiaohua Zhai published groundbreaking papers on large-scale vision transformers. Trapit Bansal earned his PhD in meta-learning and reinforcement learning at UMass Amherst before co-creating OpenAI's o-series reasoning models. Top AI labs hire researchers who push knowledge forward, not just engineers who implement existing algorithms. This means: Reading papers daily (Arxiv sanity or Twitter AI circles help). Writing papers for conferences like NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, ACL. 4. Dive into multimodal and reasoning systems If you want to be at the AGI frontier, focus on multimodal AI (vision + language + speech) and reasoning/planning systems. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Glicemia acima de 100? Insira essa fruta na sua dieta Saúde Nacional Undo Why? Because AGI isn't just about language models completing your sentences. It's about: Understanding images, videos, and speech seamlessly Performing logical reasoning and planning over long contexts For example, Hongyu Ren's work combines knowledge graphs with LLMs to improve question answering. Jack Rae focuses on LLM memory and chain-of-thought reasoning. This is the cutting edge. 5. Optimise your engineering skills Finally, remember that AI breakthroughs don't live in papers alone. They need to run efficiently at scale. Pei Sun and Joel Pobar are prime examples: engineering leaders who ensure giant models run on hardware without melting the data centre. Learn: Distributed training frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow) Systems optimisation (CUDA, GPUs, AI accelerators) Software engineering best practices for scalable deployment The bottom line Becoming an AI genius isn't about quick YouTube tutorials. It's about mastering mathematics, deep learning architectures, original research, multimodal reasoning, and scalable engineering. Do this, and maybe one day, Mark Zuckerberg will knock on your door offering you a $50 million signing bonus to build his artificial god. Until then, back to those linear algebra problem sets. The future belongs to those who understand tensors. Is your child ready for the careers of tomorrow? Enroll now and take advantage of our early bird offer! Spaces are limited.
Forbes
02-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Beyond Money: How Culture And Vision Win Top Talent
Money is not the only driver for talent in AI Meta's aggressive recruitment tactics have changed the public discourse about the challenge of recruiting AI talent. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed on the Uncapped podcast that Meta dangled 'giant offer" such as "$100 million signing bonuses' to lure AI talent . Even if many of these offers involved long-term equity rather than immediate cash, the message was unmistakable: in the AI arms race, big money talks. There's no denying the allure of sky-high salaries and bonuses. However, the facts on the ground consistently show that truly great talent can't be bought alone—lasting attraction and retention rely on something deeper. Meta's attempts to recruit researchers like Lucas Beyer and Alexander Kolesnikov (two of the three employees that did accept Meta's offers) demonstrate the stakes in today's AI talent war. But top professionals aren't purely coin-operated. As Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review have both noted, compensation is often a short-term motivator—one that fades quickly if employees find the culture or leadership lacking. The Real Drivers, Beyond Compensation, Behind Talent Decisions Top researchers want to contribute to something meaningful, not just lucrative. Here are a few of the motivations that incentive experts to switch teams. 1. Compelling Mission And Vision A clear, ambitious mission gives purpose to their work. For instance, OpenAI's stated mission to 'ensure AGI benefits all humanity' inspires many who could earn more elsewhere. Similarly, DeepMind's focus on 'solving intelligence to advance science and benefit humanity' has kept it a magnet for talent despite fierce competition. When a company's mission is tied to real-world impact, it can outweigh even extravagant offers from competitors. In the book 'Practical Wisdom,' author Barry Schwartz emphasizes that a strong sense of purpose is one of the most powerful motivators for skilled professionals. 2. Company Culture And Freedom Research freedom is critical in AI, where innovation depends on exploration. A culture that promotes psychological safety—defined by author Amy Edmondson in her book "The Fearless Organization"—empowers researchers to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and take creative risks without fear of punishment or humiliation. Organizations like Google Brain have thrived by giving teams autonomy to pursue blue-sky ideas, leading to breakthroughs such as Transformer models that revolutionized NLP. Without that freedom, even the best-paid engineers will eventually disengage or leave. 3. Recognition Ambitious professionals want to work where their contributions will matter—and be noticed. When a company is recognized as a leader in its domain, it signals opportunities to publish research, speak at top conferences, and collaborate with other experts. This kind of visibility helps researchers build reputations that are invaluable for their careers. For example, DeepMind's publications in scientific journals like Nature and Science helped cement its status as a leading AI lab, attracting talent who want to make contributions recognized at the highest levels. 4. Ethical Leadership Great leaders don't just set goals—they embody values. Employees want to know their leaders will make decisions they can be proud of, especially in fields like AI where ethics are under intense scrutiny. Organizations with leaders who consistently demonstrate integrity and transparency create trust, loyalty, and pride. As Hitotsubashi University Professor Ikujiro Nonaka wrote in Harvard Business Review's webinar 'The Wise Leader,' wise leaders integrate intuition, values, and vision to guide organizations through ambiguity. Leaders who clearly communicate their principles and stick to them—even when it's inconvenient—are magnets for talent seeking meaning, not just money. Levers More Powerful Than Cash Big salaries may open the door, but culture, purpose, ethical clarity, reputation, and leadership keep top talent engaged for the long haul. Leaders hoping to compete with mega-offers should invest in: In the AI arms race, companies that invest in these deeper levers won't just attract great people—they'll inspire them to stay, innovate, and build the future together.
NDTV
30-06-2025
- Business
- NDTV
Did Meta Offer $100m Signing Bonus? Ex-OpenAI Employee Replies To Sam Altman's Claim
Lucas Beyer recently joined Meta Platforms, leaving OpenAI. He took to social media to refute viral claims made by OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, that he was offered a $100 million signing bonus, calling it "fake news". Meta has, of late, been pushing to hire more researchers from OpenAI to join chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's superintelligence efforts. Recently, it hired Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai, along with Beyer. They were all working in OpenAI's Zurich office, as per the Wall Street Journal. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Beyer clarified, "Hey all, couple quick notes: 1) Yes, we will be joining Meta. 2) No, we did not get 100M sign-on, that's fake news. Excited about what's ahead though, will share more in due time." hey all, couple quick notes: 1) yes, we will be joining Meta. 2) no, we did not get 100M sign-on, that's fake news. Excited about what's ahead though, will share more in due time! cc @__kolesnikov__ and @XiaohuaZhai. — Lucas Beyer (bl16) (@giffmana) June 26, 2025 Beyer's post came after Altman's comment during the Uncapped podcast in which he said Meta started making "giant offers" to a lot of people on his team. "Like $100 million signing bonuses. It is crazy." He had then said that he was happy that people were not considering the offer. A user commented on Beyer's post on X, saying, "bro didn't get the $100m sign on standard offer." Beyer replied, "Thank God Sam let me know I've been lowballed." Another echoed a similar sentiment, writing, "Sam Altman clearly just threw out the 100m figure out there to make potential takers think that they were being lowballed." Beyer replied, "yes, it was a brilliant move, gotta give him that." In the latest development, The Information reported on Saturday that Meta is hiring four more OpenAI artificial intelligence researchers, Shengjia Zhao, Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi and Hongyu Ren. They have reportedly agreed to join.
News18
30-06-2025
- Business
- News18
Ex-OpenAI Employee, Now At Meta, Calls Out Sam Altman For ‘Fake News'
Last Updated: Lucas Beyer, who moved from Sam Altman's OpenAI to Meta recently, said that he did not get any bonus for joining Mark Zuckerberg's team. A recent claim by OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, about Meta offering $100 million signing bonuses to attract top AI talent has been dismissed by his former researcher. Lucas Beyer, who moved from Altman's company to Meta recently, said that he did not get any such bonus and called the claim 'false news." Along with Beyer, two other experts, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai, are also joining Mark Zuckerberg's team. The three are expected to work on Meta's advanced AI projects. Taking to X, Beyer wrote, 'Hey all, couple quick notes: 1) Yes, we will be joining Meta. 2) No, we did not get 100M sign-on, that's fake news. Excited about what's ahead though, will share more in due time." cc @__kolesnikov__ and @XiaohuaZhai. — Lucas Beyer (bl16) (@giffmana) June 26, 2025 Lucas Beyer's criticism came after Sam Altman during the Uncapped podcast said, 'They (Meta) started making these like giant offers to a lot of people on our team. Like $100 million signing bonuses. It is crazy. I'm really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them up on that I think that people sort of look at the two paths and say, 'All right, OpenAI's got a really good shot, a much better shot at actually delivering on super intelligence and also may eventually be the more valuable company'." According to the Wall Street Journal, Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai were all based in OpenAI's Zurich office, which they helped open in 2023. Before joining OpenAI, the three of them had worked together at Google's DeepMind, which also focuses on artificial intelligence. This comes after Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, started putting a lot of effort into improving the company's AI work. After their latest AI model didn't get a strong response, Zuckerberg got directly involved in hiring top AI talent in April. First Published:
India Today
30-06-2025
- Business
- India Today
OpenAI to adjust salary and reward employees after Meta apparently broke into its home and stole top AI talent
As Meta intensifies efforts to build its superintelligence lab, OpenAI is reeling from a wave of senior staff exits. In the past few weeks, at least eight high-profile scientists have reportedly left OpenAI to join Meta. This includes Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, alongside others like Trapit Bansal, Shengjia Zhao, Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, and Hongyu Ren. In response, OpenAI's leadership has reportedly launched an urgent internal campaign to reassure remaining staff and defend the company's culture. advertisementOpenAI's chief research officer Mark Chen apparently took to Slack to deliver a forceful message, likening the departures to a personal violation. 'I feel a visceral feeling right now, as if someone has broken into our home and stolen something,' Chen wrote in the internal memo that was obtained by Wired. 'Please trust that we haven't been sitting idly by.'Chen, along with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other senior leaders, has been working 'around the clock' to speak to staff with competing offers. He said they are actively 'recalibrating comp' and exploring 'creative ways to recognise and reward top talent.' While trying to stem the talent drain, Chen made it clear that fairness would not be compromised. 'While I'll fight to keep every one of you, I won't do so at the price of fairness to others,' he context behind this internal scramble lies in what appears to be an aggressive hiring spree by Meta. Over the past month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly been directly involved in recruiting AI talent, and according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Meta is targeting individuals from OpenAI and Google. The Information and TechCrunch have also detailed the wave of departures, further fuelling speculation around Meta's hiring addition to that, speaking on a podcast with his brother Jack Altman, OpenAI's chief executive claimed that Meta was offering some recruits signing bonuses of up to $100 million. Internally, Meta has denied this. According to The Verge, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth dismissed Altman's claim as 'wildly misleading' and said that only a 'very, very small number' of extremely senior individuals might receive such large packages, and even then not as a lump-sum bonus.'It's far more complex than a one-off cheque,' Bosworth reportedly to Meta's defence, Beyer, Kolesnikov, and Zhai confirmed their move to Meta on X (formerly Twitter) but described the $100 million rumour as 'fake news.' Back at OpenAI, leaders are doing what they can to prevent further attrition. Chen's Slack message reportedly included words of encouragement from seven other research team members. One apparently advised teammates not to feel pressured by 'ridiculous exploding offers' and to reach out if they needed support. Another warned that Meta might take advantage of OpenAI's planned company-wide break to isolate and pressure potential recruits.'Meta knows we're taking this week to recharge and will take advantage of it to try and pressure you to make decisions fast and in isolation,' the message timing is particularly sensitive. OpenAI is giving most of its staff a week off to recover from the intense pace of work, which some say often runs up to 80 hours a week. Despite this, company executives, including Chen and Altman, have indicated they will remain available during the break to support his memo, Chen reportedly also reflected on OpenAI's mission and cautioned against getting caught up in the 'cadence of regular product launches' or short-term competition. 'We need to remain focused on the real prize of finding ways to compute into intelligence,' he wrote. 'Skirmishes with Meta are the side quest.'OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly also responded to Chen's memo in Slack, commending his leadership during the difficult moment. 'It's been really amazing to watch Mark's leadership and integrity through this process, especially when he has had to make tough decisions,' he wrote. 'Very grateful we have him as our leader!'- Ends
