Business | Retention is all you need

The war for AI talent is heating up

Big tech firms scramble to fill gaps as brain drain sets in

A military cap with the OpenAI logo as an embroidered badge
Illustration: Ricardo Tomás
|SAN FRANCISCO

Pity OpenAI’s HR department. Since the start of the year the maker of ChatGPT, the hit artificial-intelligence (AI) chatbot, has lost about a dozen top researchers. The biggest name was Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder responsible for many of the startup’s big breakthroughs, who announced his resignation on May 14th. He did not give a reason, though many suspect that it is linked to his attempt to oust Sam Altman, the firm’s boss, last December. Whatever the motivation, the exodus is not unusual at OpenAI. According to one estimate, of the 100-odd AI experts the firm has hired since 2016, about half have left.

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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Retention is all you need”

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