Monkeys, Sex Workers, and the AI Talent War

Since my dad died, I’ve grown close to my father-in-law Bill. He has a mix of joy and realism I admire, and his advice tends to stick.

One of his favorites: “We’re all prostitutes when it comes to work.” He’s from an older generation, so I’ll swap in “sex workers” as the appropriate phrase here. What he means is that we work mainly for money.

That’s been on my mind as the AI talent war heats up. Mark Zuckerberg has been offering $100 million-plus packages to lure AI researchers and engineers from frontier labs and Big Tech rivals. Some have refused, citing loyalty to their company’s mission.

“They are trying to buy something that cannot be bought. And that is alignment with the mission,” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said recently, noting his top talent has stayed despite Meta’s offers. Staff at Thinking Machines Lab have also turned Zuck down, either over leadership concerns or mission loyalty, according to Wired.

My father-in-law would say a phrase that includes the letters B and S. According to the gospel of Bill, this is all about getting paid, as usual.

A Business Insider scoop backs this up: This week, Charles Rollet reported Zuck’s recruiting drive has created tension among existing Meta AI experts, who resent newcomers getting higher pay in its new Superintelligence team. That’s made some easier to poach. xAI has nabbed several, and Microsoft has a Meta talent wish list. On August 6, Laurens van der Maaten, a top Meta scientist, announced he was joining Anthropic.

Reacting on X, former Meta engineering director Erik Meijer wrote: “Every action has a reaction; the unintended side effects of creating a SI team,” referring to the Superintelligence group. When asked for comment, he shared a YouTube clip of an experiment in which two monkeys performing the same task were given different rewards. The one that got a less tasty treat hurled it back and angrily shook its cage.

If we’re all metaphorical monkeys or sex workers, what about the “mission-driven” folks staying put? One possible explanation: equity.

Many engineers and researchers get stock in their startups, and these awards typically vest over several years. If you’re at a hot AI lab, your unvested equity has probably soared in value lately, or there’s a chance it could.

For instance, Anthropic could be worth $170 billion soon, up from about $4 billion two years ago. If you got equity back then and you’re waiting for it to vest, there’s no way you’re leaving right now.

No surprise: most folks are staying at Anthropic. Until that equity vests, anyway.

I want to hear back from AI experts who are getting big offers. Are you mission-driven and staying put, or will you take the $$$ like most of us monkeys? Let me know: abarr@businessinsider.com.

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