Meta

Meta expands AI ambitions with more OpenAI hires

According to a report published by The Information on Sunday, Meta Platforms has hired four additional researchers from OpenAI.

The researchers—Shengjia Zhao, Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, and Hongyu Ren—are set to join Meta’s AI team as part of a broader recruitment drive. All four were previously involved in AI development at OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed company behind ChatGPT and other generative models.

Earlier in the week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta had hired three more OpenAI researchers—Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai—based in the firm’s Zurich office.

The hires reflect Meta’s increased investment in advanced AI research, particularly in ‘superintelligence’, a term CEO Mark Zuckerberg has used to describe future AI capabilities.

Meta and OpenAI have not yet responded to requests for comment. Reuters noted that it could not independently verify the hiring details at the time of reporting.

With growing competition among tech giants in AI innovation, Meta’s continued talent acquisition suggests a clear intention to strengthen its internal capabilities through strategic hiring.

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Meta hires top OpenAI researcher for AI superintelligence push

Meta has reportedly hired AI researcher Trapit Bansal, who previously worked closely with OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever on reinforcement learning and co-created the o1 reasoning model.

Bansal joins Meta’s ambitious superintelligence team, which is focused on further pushing AI reasoning capabilities.

Former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang leads the new team, brought in after Meta invested $14.3 billion in the AI data labelling company.

Alongside Bansal, several other notable figures have recently joined, including three OpenAI researchers from Zurich, a former Google DeepMind expert, Jack Rae, and a senior machine learning lead from Sesame AI.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is accelerating AI recruitment by negotiating with prominent names like former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Safe Superintelligence co-founder Daniel Gross.

Despite these aggressive efforts, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that even $100 million joining bonuses have failed to lure key staff away from his firm.

Zuckerberg has also explored acquiring startups such as Sutskever’s Safe SuperIntelligence and Perplexity AI, further highlighting Meta’s urgency in catching up in the generative AI race.

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Meta wins copyright case over AI training

Meta has won a copyright lawsuit brought by a group of authors who accused the company of using their books without permission to train its Llama generative AI.

A US federal judge in San Francisco ruled the AI training was ‘transformative’ enough to qualify as fair use under copyright law.

Judge Vince Chhabria noted, however, that future claims could be more successful. He warned that using copyrighted books to build tools capable of flooding the market with competing works may not always be protected by fair use, especially when such tools generate vast profits.

The case involved pirated copies of books, including Sarah Silverman’s memoir ‘The Bedwetter’ and Junot Diaz’s award-winning novel ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’. Meta defended its approach, stating that open-source AI drives innovation and relies on fair use as a key legal principle.

Chhabria clarified that the ruling does not confirm the legality of Meta’s actions, only that the plaintiffs made weak arguments. He suggested that more substantial evidence and legal framing might lead to a different outcome in future cases.

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WhatsApp launches AI feature to sum up all the unread messages

WhatsApp has introduced a new feature using Meta AI to help users manage unread messages more easily. Named ‘Message Summaries’, the tool provides quick overviews of missed messages in individual and group chats, assisting users to catch up without scrolling through long threads.

The summaries are generated using Meta’s Private Processing technology, which operates inside a Trusted Execution Environment. The secure cloud-based system ensures that neither Meta nor WhatsApp — nor anyone else in the conversation — can access your messages or the AI-generated summaries.

According to WhatsApp, Message Summaries are entirely private. No one else in the chat can see the summary created for you. If someone attempts to interfere with the secure system, operations will stop immediately, or the change will be exposed using a built-in transparency check.

Meta has designed the system around three principles: secure data handling during processing and transmission, strict enforcement of protections against tampering, and provable transparency to track any breach attempt.

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Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses unveiled

Meta and Oakley have revealed the Oakley Meta HSTN, a new AI-powered smart glasses model explicitly designed for athletes and fitness fans. The glasses combine Meta’s advanced AI with Oakley’s signature sporty design, offering features tailored for high-performance settings.

The device is ideal for workouts and outdoor use and is equipped with a 3K ultra-HD camera, open-ear speakers, and IPX4 water resistance.

On-device Meta AI provides real-time coaching, hands-free information and eight hours of active battery life, while a compact charging case adds up to 48 more hours.

The glasses are set for pre-order from 11 July, with a limited-edition gold-accent version priced at 499 dollars. Standard versions will follow later in the summer, with availability expanding beyond North America, Europe and Australia to India and the UAE by year-end.

Sports stars like Kylian Mbappé and Patrick Mahomes are helping introduce the glasses, representing Meta’s move to integrate smart tech into athletic gear. The product marks a shift from lifestyle-focused eyewear to functional devices supporting sports performance.

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Oakley unveils smart glasses featuring Meta technology

Meta has partnered with Oakley to launch a new line of smart glasses designed for active lifestyles. The flagship model, Oakley Meta HSTN, will be available for preorder from 11 July for $499.

Additional Oakley models featuring Meta’s innovative technology are set to launch later in the summer, starting at $399.

https://twitter.com/1Kapisch/status/1936045567626617315

The glasses include a front-facing camera, open-ear speakers, and microphones embedded in the frame, much like the Meta Ray-Bans. When paired with a smartphone, users can listen to music, take calls, and interact with Meta AI.

With built-in cameras and microphones, Meta AI can also describe surroundings, answer visual questions, and translate languages.

With their sleek, sports-ready design and IPX4 water resistance, the glasses are geared toward athletes. They offer 8 hours of battery life—twice that of the Meta Ray-Bans—and come with a charging case that extends usage to 48 hours. Video capture quality has also improved, now supporting 3K resolution.


Customers can choose from five frame and lens combinations with prescription lenses for an added cost. Colours include warm grey, black, brown smoke, and clear, while lens options include Oakley’s PRIZM and transitions.

The $499 limited-edition version features gold accents and gold PRIZM lenses. Sales will cover major markets across North America, Europe, and Australia.

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Sam Altman claims OpenAI team rejecting Meta’s mega offers

Meta is intensifying efforts to recruit AI talent from OpenAI by offering signing bonuses worth up to $100 million and multi-million-pound annual salaries. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claims none of the company’s top researchers have accepted the offers.

Speaking on the Uncapped podcast, Altman said Meta had approached his team with ‘giant offers’, but OpenAI’s researchers stayed loyal, believing the company has a better chance of achieving superintelligence—AI that surpasses human capabilities.

OpenAI, where the average employee reportedly earns around $1.13 million a year, fosters a mission-driven culture focused on building AI for the benefit of humanity, Altman said.

Meta, meanwhile, is assembling a 50-person Superintelligence Lab, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally overseeing recruitment. Bloomberg reported that offers from Meta have reached seven to nine figures in total compensation.

Despite the aggressive approach, Meta appears to be losing some of its own researchers to rivals. VC principal Deedy Das recently said Meta lost three AI researchers to OpenAI and Anthropic, even after offering over $2 million annually.

In a bid to acquire more talent, Meta has also invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI, securing a 49% stake and bringing CEO Alexandr Wang into its Superintelligence Lab leadership.

Meta says its AI assistant now reaches one billion monthly users, while OpenAI reports 500 million weekly active users globally.

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New Meta smart glasses target sports enthusiasts

Meta is set to launch a new pair of AI-powered smart glasses under the Oakley brand, targeting sports users. Scheduled for release on 20 June, the glasses mark an expansion of Meta’s partnership with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica.

Oakley’s sporty design and outdoor functionality make it ideal for active users, a market Meta aims to capture with this launch. The glasses will feature a central camera and likely retail for around $360.

This follows the success of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, which include AI assistant integration and hands-free visual capture. Over two million pairs have been sold since 2023, according to EssilorLuxottica’s CEO.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues to push smart eyewear as a long-term replacement for smartphones. With high-fashion Prada smart glasses also in development, Meta is betting on wearable tech becoming the next frontier in computing.

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Meta offers $100M bonuses to poach OpenAI talent but Altman defends mission-driven culture

Meta has reportedly attempted to lure top talent from OpenAI with signing bonuses exceeding $100 million, according to OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman.

Speaking on a podcast hosted by his brother, Jack Altman, he revealed that Meta has offered extremely high compensation to key OpenAI staff, yet none have accepted the offers.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is said to be directly involved in recruiting for a new ‘superintelligence’ team as part of the latest AI push.

The tech giant recently announced a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI and brought Scale’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, on board. Altman believes Meta sees ChatGPT not only as competition for Google but as a potential rival to Facebook regarding user attention.

Altman questioned whether such high-compensation strategies foster the right environment, suggesting that culture cannot be built on upfront financial incentives alone.

He stressed that OpenAI prefers aligning rewards with its mission instead of offering massive pay packets. In his view, sustainable innovation stems from purpose, not payouts.

While recognising Meta’s persistence in the AI race, Altman suggested that the company will likely try again if the current effort fails. He highlighted a cultural difference, saying OpenAI has built a team focused on consistent innovation — something he believes Meta still struggles to understand.

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Meta bets big on AI, partners with Scale AI in strategic move

Meta Platforms has made a major move in the AI space by investing $14.8 billion in Scale AI, acquiring a 49% stake and pushing the data-labelling startup’s valuation past $29 billion.

As part of the deal, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang will join Meta’s leadership to head its new superintelligence unit, while continuing to serve on Scale AI’s board. The investment deepens Meta’s commercial ties with Scale and is seen as a strategic step to secure top-tier AI expertise.

Scale AI will use the funds to drive innovation and strengthen client partnerships, while also providing partial liquidity to shareholders and equity holders. Jason Droege, Scale’s Chief Strategy Officer and former Uber Eats executive, will serve as interim CEO.

‘This partnership is a testament to our team’s work and the scale of opportunity ahead,’ said Droege. Wang added, ‘Meta’s investment affirms the limitless path forward for AI and Scale’s role in bridging human values with transformative technologies.’

Scale will remain independent, continuing to support AI labs, corporations, and government agencies with data infrastructure as the race for AI dominance intensifies.

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