--- title: "Top AI Researchers Keep Leaving Facebook" description: "Mark Zuckerberg's Meta-formerly-Facebook is bleeding its top AI leaders, with at least three executives leaving the company in March alone." date: "2024-04-03" modified: "2024-04-03" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-researchers-leaving-facebook" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "facebook ai" - "mark zuckerberg" - "Meta" - "the digest" --- # Top AI Researchers Keep Leaving Facebook ![Mark Zuckerberg's Meta-formerly-Facebook is bleeding its top AI leaders, with at least three executives leaving the company in March alone.]() *\Image: Celal Gunes / Anadolu via Getty / Futurism\* ## Jumping Ship Mark Zuckerberg's Meta-formerly-Facebook is bleeding its top AI leaders. As [*Fortune* reports](), the company has lost at least three significant AI leaders in March alone: Devi Parikh, Meta's now-former senior director of generative AI; Abhishek Das, the now-former head of Meta's Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team; and Erik Meijer, Meta's now-former director of engineering. Each executive bid adieus to their [metamates]() late last month, taking to X-formerly-Twitter to announce their surprising exits. And from the outside, it seems like there are no hard feelings; Parikh [noted]() that she would "miss Meta," while Das [wrote]() in his goodbye that Meta's FAIR team remains "really strong." "I'm rooting for them!" Das added. But none of these three departed metamates were nearly as forthcoming as Meijer, who [stated in a very blunt X post]() that while he's "more bullish than ever about Meta with the company's increased focus on AI," he believes that continuing to work for such a big company might be limiting to someone who doesn't necessarily want to build their own large language model (LLM). "Given the incredible competitive pressure in the field," wrote Meijer, "there is really no advantage to be inside a large corp if you want to build cool stuff on top of LLMs." Considering that Meta CEO Zuck has reportedly been [personally penning recruiting emails]() to AI staffers at its competitor Google, losing three top AI dogs in this short of a period isn't the best look. One [too many pivots](), perhaps? https://twitter.com/headinthebox/status/1772735276504219827?s=20 ## Comes in Waves On the one hand, given the amount of venture capital cash being poured into AI startups, it's not surprising to see some directors risk leaving large companies while the iron's extremely — and perhaps dangerously — hot. "Technology is there, the market is bubbling, and VCs have opened the banks for risk takers," Rice University computer scientist Anshumali Shrivastava told *Fortune*. "Who will not do it?" Other experts say that the exits reflect patterns in previous technological shakeups. "Every time there's a new platform or layer of the technology stack, there is an opportunity for startups to build apps on top of it," Arvind Narayanan, a professor of computer science at Princeton, told *Fortune*. "We saw this with the PC, the web, mobile app stores, and now we're seeing it with generative AI." In other words, according to Narayanan, this is an expected Silicon Valley cycle. And though Meijer told *Fortune* that the three execs' simultaneous departure was likely due to the company's yearly review cycle, the strikes are still a blow to Meta — especially as the Silicon Valley AI race only continues to heat up. **More on Zucko headhunting:** [*Zuckerberg Emailing Google Employees, Asking Them to Work for Facebook Instead*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()