Top AI Researchers Depart Meta to Pursue Personal Projects and Startups Despite CEO's Pleas to Stay

Several top AI researchers like Erik Meijer recently left Meta to start their own AI companies or work on personal projects, despite attempts by Meta's CEO to convince them to stay.

Meijer believes now is a good time to build on top of large language models outside of big tech companies due to increasing model capabilities and decreasing costs.

The timing of the departures may be partly cyclical as people leave big tech companies to start their own and possibly return later.

There is currently great opportunity for risk-takers wanting to have an impact in AI, though successful startups often eventually get acquired back by big tech.

Meijer remains optimistic about Meta's AI efforts and feels his layoff let him pivot quickly to more promising work in generative AI.