Several researchers who recently joined Meta’s Superintelligence Labs have departed within weeks, with some returning to OpenAI, according to a roundup by THE DECODER. The swift exits come amid broader restructuring around Meta’s elite AI efforts and reports of internal tensions over pace and leadership.
Rapid departures from Meta’s superintelligence effort
Avi Verma and Ethan Knight each spent less than a month at Meta before heading back to OpenAI, WIRED reported. Knight had previously worked at Elon Musk’s xAI. Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold confirmed to The Verge that Knight left the core “TBD Lab” team just weeks after joining, and clarified that Avi Verma and Rishabh Agarwal were part of the broader superintelligence organization rather than the core team.
Chaya Nayak, who led generative AI efforts at Meta for years, is also moving to OpenAI, according to THE DECODER’s summary of the reports. Separately, AI researcher Rishabh Agarwal announced his departure from Meta on X, calling it a “tough decision” after praising the company’s “talent and compute density.”
Leadership titles and retention moves
The Financial Times reported that Shengjia Zhao, described as one of the original developers of ChatGPT, threatened to quit Meta and return to OpenAI, even signing paperwork to make the move official. According to the FT, Meta responded by giving Zhao the title of “Chief AI Scientist.” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said Zhao was a cofounder of the Meta Superintelligence Lab and held a leadership role from the start.
Context around Meta’s superintelligence push
Meta launched Superintelligence Labs to accelerate work on advanced general AI, recruiting researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Apple. The lab reports directly to Mark Zuckerberg, is led by Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, and operates with access to Meta’s infrastructure. FAIR, led by Yann LeCun, remains Meta’s core research unit and now sits alongside the TBD Lab, a product-focused research team, and a central infrastructure group.
The Financial Times also reported tensions between Zuckerberg and Wang over how quickly to push toward superintelligence, with Zuckerberg reportedly demanding a faster pace. Meta dismissed these rumors as “manufactured tension without basis in fact that’s clearly being pushed by dramatic, navel-gazing busybodies,” according to THE DECODER’s compilation, which cites Financial Times, The Verge, and WIRED.
