IITian with stints at Google, Microsoft, OpenAI now ‘thrilled’ to join Meta’s top AI team

OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood confirmed to TechCrunch that Bansal had left the AI firm.

Meta’s AI push

Meta, once regarded as a frontrunner in open-source artificial intelligence, has recently faced setbacks due to a wave of staff departures and delays in releasing new models that could rival those from Google, OpenAI, and China’s DeepSeek, according to Reuters.

Amid this turbulence, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced a major reorganisation of the company’s AI efforts. In an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg, Zuckerberg said Meta’s AI initiatives will now fall under a newly formed unit called Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). The division will be led by Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of data-labelling startup Scale AI. Zuckerberg described Wang as the “most impressive founder of his generation,” and he will take on the role of chief AI officer at Meta, according to the report.

“As the pace of AI progress accelerates, developing superintelligence is coming into sight,” Zuckerberg wrote in the internal post. “I believe this will be the beginning of a new era for humanity, and I am fully committed to doing what it takes for Meta to lead the way.”

In pursuit of this ambition, Zuckerberg has ramped up hiring for his superintelligence unit, bringing on board several influential AI researchers who previously worked at OpenAI, including Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai.

Speaking on the Uncapped podcast in mid-June, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman commented on Meta’s aggressive recruitment tactics. He claimed that Meta “started making giant offers to a lot of people on our team” with “$100 million signing bonuses, more than that (in) compensation per year.”