Trapit Bansal, an Indian-origin researcher and IIT Kanpur graduate, has left OpenAI to join Meta’s newly launched Superintelligence unit, becoming the latest high-profile AI expert to make the switch.
“Thrilled to be joining Meta! Superintelligence is now in sight,” Bansal wrote on X.
Meta has been recruiting top artificial intelligence researchers from companies like OpenAI and offering salaries in the tens of millions of dollars, Bloomberg reported.
According to Reuters, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has personally led an aggressive talent raid for the company's artificial intelligence efforts under a new division called Meta Superintelligence Labs.
OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood has also confirmed to TechCrunch that Bansal had left the AI firm.
Who is Trapit Bansal?
- Bansal holds a degree in Mathematics and Statistics from IIT Kanpur (2007-2012), a master’s in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a PhD in Computer Science, also from UMass Amherst.
- According to his LinkedIn profile, he has held research internship positions at IISc Bangalore, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.
- Bansal had also interned at OpenAI for four months in 2017 during his graduation years.
- His first full-time role was at OpenAI, where he joined as a Member of Technical Staff in January 2022.
Who else is on Meta's Superintelligence division
According to Reuters, the division will be headed by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of data labeling startup Scale AI.
{{/usCountry}}According to Reuters, the division will be headed by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of data labeling startup Scale AI.
{{/usCountry}}Former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman will co-lead the Superintelligence Labs with Wang and head the company's work on AI products and applied research, the news agency reported, citing a source.
The source mentioned that Zuckerberg has recruited 11 new AI experts, including researchers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
According to the source, the recent appointments also include former DeepMind researchers Jack Rae and Pei Sun, several OpenAI alumni, including Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren, and Anthropic's Joel Pobar, who previously worked at Meta for over a decade.